Friedrich Gornik was an artisan and sculptor of animals and figures. He followed lessons at the Fachschule in Villach, worked during one year under the guidance of Théodore Charlemont, studied under Breitner and Strasser at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschulde (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where he lived. When he graduated, he obtained a travelling scholarship.

It was in 1903 in Villach, that he for the first time showed animal studies which he created for execution in porcelain. It was in fact the way he had to observe animals very close in order to be able to realise them very accurate in porcelain, that brought him renommée. His first works were therefore small animal models, partly as lampstands, created for the many porcelain factories in Austria at the time. He also made designs for vases, bowles, etc. and juwels.

Gornik was a regular visitor of the Zoologische Garten in Shönbrunn where his animal studies resulted in a series of bigger animal sculptures and animal groups in plaster, in particular carnivore animal groups, as well as workhorses and oxes. These plaster sculptures were partly executed in bronze by other sculptors.

His work stands out by his solid handcrafted technics. After several years working for several porcelain manufacturers, Gornik started to cast his sculptures in bronze. Many of these included farm animals (such as working horses and oxes), dogs and several large models of horsemen. He also created small decorative items like desk sets, bell pushes and inkwells.

Like sculptor Carl Kauba (1865-1922), Gornik was fascinated by the American West, and especially the Indians and Cowboys associated with it. Gornik's works reflects his attention to detail when it comes to both mental and physical characteristics.

One of his first bronzes was a sculpture of a cowboy riding a horse, reflecting Gornik's interest in the American Western folklore. The action is well captured as the cowboy rides, twirling his lasso above his head. It was cast by the Arthur Rubenstein foundry in Vienna. His naturalistic group of horses, Troika, was bought by the Austrian emperor and is until today located in the imperial villa in Bad Ischl.

Other human figures are for example: Wrestling young men, Woonded fighter.  

Gornik was also co-founder of the Carinthian art society and his works are represented in several museums, including the Austrian Gallery Belvedere and the Museum of Military History.

Basin for turtles decorated with pelicans

1920s-1930s  

Patinated bronze and glass on a Patricia Vert marble base

Not signed

Stamped MADE IN AUSTRIA

Basin: H. 29 cm, W. 62,50 cm, D. 31 cm; Base: H. 4 cm, W. 70 cm, D. 41 cm

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 6) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 304; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 15) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 349.

Vicenzo L. Jerace was a sculptor and interior decorator, in fact an all-round artist fascinated by animals and natural sciences.

He was trained in Naples where he attended the Institute of Fine Arts and where he was welcomed by his older brother Francesco Jerace (1853-1937), already established as a sculptor and painter.

From the start he had a predilection for animal sculptures, a theme that brought him numerous awards and positive critics. At the aquarium of La Stazione zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples he was able to study the radiolarians also called radiozoa, protozoa of diameter 0,1-0,2 mm that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm. From these radiolarians he drew inspiration for some works in Art Nouveau style in marble, metal or ceramic. Also in the realization of decorations and architectural elements he was the ‘author of liberty’ and designed the Pierce Villa in Naples, the Imperato Villa in Castellammare di Stabia, and the London office of the pre-Raphaelite painter and sculptor Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-1896).

He was also very active in the public domain with monumental statuary. Some fine examples are: the impressive Leone d'Aspromonte, the plaster model for an unrealized monument for general Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), that, after being exhibited in Rome, was lost; Il Redentore, in bronze, commissioned on the occasion of the Jubilee Year of 1900 of the Catholic Church and inaugurated on 29 August 1901 on the mount Monte Ortobene; the marble group Sinite parvulos which has been installed in the Forest Lawn memorial park of Cypress in the district of Los Angeles; and several memorials made after the First World War in different Calabrian countries.

The artist was also specialised in sanguine drawings, including some portraits, preparatory studies of challenging works like a fresco - which was lost, only sketches remaine – inspired by the Amori degli Angioli  (The Loves of the Angels), a poem (1823) by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852).

Jerace traveled to Italy and Europe, participating in the Triennale in Rome (Rome Triennal), the Biennale di Venezia and Biennale di Milano (Venice and Milan Biennals). He exhibited his work in Antwerp in 1894, in Barcelona in 1896, in London in 1888 and in 1910 in Paris and Dresden.

Jerace married twice. His first wife, Luisa Pompeati, which he met in Trento in 1890, died about ten years after the wedding, while the artist was working at the Il Redentore statue. He honoured her memory for the rest of his life. However, he remarried in 1917 with the Venetian Pia Pischiutta.

Fight between panther and hunter

1911

Patinated bronze on a marble, ball bearing spinning base

Signed ƎP Vicenzo L. Jerace, with the name Rome and dated 1911 on the side of the base

Sculpture: H. 19 cm, W. ca. 40 cm, D. ca. 12 cm; Base: H. 12 cm, W. 40 cm, D. 14,50 cm

Source: Le Pera, E. (2008), Enciclopedia dell'Arte di Calabria, Ottocento e Novecento, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino editore.

Marcel Bouraine was a French artist, born in Pontoise in 1886. He is best-known as a sculptor of animals, small-scale statuettes, chryselephantine figures and bas-reliefs. However he also made over-life size sculptures, figural groups - many with a classical theme - and automobile mascots. He had a predilection for female figures such as dancers. His creations are the embodiment of high Art Deco style and express grace and poise, so typical of the artist's work. He created his oeuvre in various materials: bronze, bronze and ivory, marble, terracotta, pâte de verre. He sometimes worked under the pseudonym Marcel-André Derenne, but he may also have used Brian(d).

Tough he studied under sculptor and painter Jean-Alexandre-Joseph Falguière (1831-1900) - who had re-introduced and emphasized simplified Realism in 19th century sculpture - and due to the First World War circumstances at the Geneva academy in Switzerland, he was largely self-taught. Nonetheless, he achieved a high level of technical expertise and expressed enigmatic Realism and geometry in his work. As a ceramist he worked together with master glass designer, maker and entrepreneur Joseph-Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953), who started - together with financer Moser-Millot - in 1921 in Paris his own glassworks Les Pâtes de Verres d'Argy-Rousseau. Bouraine created for example pâte de verre lamp bases and sculptures. He worked with several companies such as Susse Frères, Etling et Cie, Arthur Goldscheider and the Maison of Max Le Verrier (1891-1973), his lifelong friend.

Bouraine was taken war-prisoner in Germany during the First World War (1914-1918). The Germans appreciated his talent and gave him several commissions. He was interned in Switzerland (exchange of prisoners) where he produced many monuments (for example one for Lausanne). It was during this period that he became acquainted with the sculptors Max Le Verrier and Pierre Le Faguays (1892-1925) when they all three studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Geneva in the Guibert studio and they became best friends. In 1922, he took part in the Salon des Tuileries. He exhibited at the Societé des Artistes Français, and the Salon d'Automne in 1923. In 1937, with an important commission, he participated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris with two monumental sculptures. He was a member of the Stele and Évolution groups.

1920s - 1930s

Bronze

Foundry name E. Etling – Paris and cire perdue on the back side

Signed at front, left M Bouraine

Bronze H. 27 cm; Basis H. 18 cm, W. 15 cm, D. 13 cm

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 2) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 660; Catley, B. (2003), Art Deco and other Figures, Antique Collector's Club: China.

Marble

Not signed

H. 70 cm, W. 160 cm, D. 58 cm

Davide Venturi founded the company that bore his name in 1840 in San Giovanni in Persiceto. At first he was simply one of dozens of sculptors in marble working on monuments in the Certosa cemetery, but over the next few years he built up his business into a solidly established company. Rather than producing only individual works, he preferred the assistance of other sculptors, expanding his labour force when carrying out work on religious buildings and private residences. In the oldest photographs from the family archives, Davide Venturi stands next to Massimiliano Putti, the renowned sculptor from Bologna, at the site of various projects, culminating in the decorations of the Pallavicini monument in 1868. He gained national recognition at the Esposizione Emilianaexhibition, held in Bologna in 1888 and intended to involve the city in the national economy. Thus the Venturi company took on the proportions of a real ‘craft’ industry, equipped with the best technology of the day.

It was not long before commissions had become so numerous that the only workshop in Bologna, far removed from the marble quarries, could not deliver at competitive prices. And so a branch opened in Pietrasanta in Tuscany, which again presented the company with new challenges.  Subsequently, a second branch opened in Caracas in Venezuela, and an office representing Davide Venturi in Los Angeles in America. Davide Venturi & Figlio participated in numerous international exhibitions, including theEsposizione Nazionale di Palermo(1891-1892) (gold medal), the Prima Mostra d'Arte Applicata all'Industria di Bologna in 1892 (honorary diploma), the Exposition Internationale deBruxelles in 1897 (silver medal), the Esposizione Centroamericana del Guatemala in 1898 (gold medal) and the Esposizione Internazionale di Milano in 1906 (honorary diploma). Albums and catalogues illustrated the best of Venturi’s production, showing not only the most complex projects in marble in the Certosa but also public national monuments in Rome, Ferrara, Bologna and Cento. Smaller albums show how widely Venturi’s work had spread; it could be seen from Ferrara to Naples.

Major commissions came from outside Italy too, from Caracas, Granada, England and South Africa. The albums from the archive show memorials, ornaments, pulpits and chapels, and sculptures designed to embellish buildings such as the Palace of Justice in Modena and the Savings Bank of Bologna, as well as many fireplaces and decorative elements for urban and suburban villas. Funerary statues in various genres and sizes were particularly well represented. Many of these sculptures were based on existing models, while others were designed by sculptors from Bologna or at least naturalized sculptors (S. Galletti. M. Putti, C. Monari, E. Barbèri, A. Orsoni, T. Golfarelli, M. Sarto, D. Sarti, etc.). In this way the most successful models by these artists spread in Italy, Europe, South Africa, South America and of course the United States.

19th century

White Carrara marble

H. 130 cm, W. ca. 120 cm, D. ca. 45-68 cm

Depicted in: Marmi Album della Ditta Davide Venturi & Figlio di Bologna – Filiale in Pietrasanta (Toscana), series 8, no. 33

Sources: Berresford, S. (ed.); website of Certosa di Bologna;Degiovanni, C., & Martorelli, R. (ed.); Marmi, series 8, no. 33; Scardino, L., & Torresi, A. P. (post mortem)

Sculptor Gaston Broquet was known for his war memorial monuments, statues, busts and masks. He collaborated with the ceramics manufacture Henriot-Quimper.

Gaston Broquet spent his childhood in Void-Vacon where his parents held a butcher’s shop. He married in 1911 in Auteuil Jeanne, the eldest daughter of the sculptor Adolphe Itasse (1839-1900), a pupil of his father who became a sculptor known as Jeanne Itasse-Broquet (1865-1941).

Broquet exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français – of which he was sociétaire (member) - in 1912, where he won a silver medal in 1922 and a travel scholarship. At the Salon d'Automne in 1900 he presented two by Realism inspired bronzes: L’Engueulade (The Dispute) et La Blanchisseuse (The Laundress).

1909

Cream patinated plaster on a rectangular presentation base in painted wood

Signed and dated on base at right Gaston Broquet 1909

H. 130 cm, W. 107 cm

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 2) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 845; Martin, J. (ed.) (1897), Nos peintres et sculpteurs, graveurs, dessinateurs, Paris: Éditions Flammarion, p. 214.

A column in pedestal form, mounted with the head of Pan. The pedestal base depicts frogs and tortoise seemingly supporting the weight of the column on their backs. The design by Walter Gilbert has most likely been modelled by Louis Weingartner.

This sculpture comes from the Sculpture in the Garden series. The name of the statue is The Rapscallion, intended to be a terminal for a garden, or for the centre of a bird bath or pool. It is also a fountain, where the water comes out of the animals' mouths.

This work draws strong resemblances to the Pan and the Nymphs Fountain, also in lead, which is currently located in East 47th Street, Kansas City, U.S.A., originally located at Moreton Paddox, Kineton, Warwickshire, England. The concept and design for the Pan and the Nymphs Fountain by Walter Gilbert, was modelled by Louis Weingartner. The sculpture is undoubtedly the same collaboration of workmanship.

Circa 1920

Lead

H 145 cm

Provenance: by direct family descent

Walter Gilbert (English, 1871-1946)

Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) was an English sculptor and father to sculptor and modeller Donald Gilbert. He had an educational career that spanned western Europe, India and the United States. First, and under Benjamin Creswick (1853-1946), he studied at Birmingham Municipal School of Art and from 1890 to 1893 at the National Art Training School (today the Royal College of Art). Having completed his studies, Gilbert sought out training around the world: in India, the United States, Belgium, France and Germany. After a short career as an instructor, Gilbert co-founded in 1898 the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts (1898–1966), a company of modern artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Guild was established through a formal partnership between Gilbert, local landowner William Whitehouse and the architectural firm Crouch and Butler (Birmingham-based architects).

Walter Gilbert described in 1903 the aims of the Guild in The Craftsman magazine: “The members of the Guild are individuals who have advanced beyond the limits of ‘professionalism’, that they might adopt the more prolific method of thinking and working in their media. These men and women, while they stand pledged to co-operation and mutual support, have individual studios and workshops altogether independent. Each department is financed and controlled separately by the guildsmen of the same department who train their apprentices: choosing and employing only those who are capable of developing the main idea of the master craftsman.”

The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts was founded on 26 November 1898. It grew out of the Bromsgrove School of Art which moved to new premises in 1895. In February 1898 Walter Gilbert was appointed Headmaster. The School's Committee hoped that Gilbert's expertise in metal work would attract students to the school. They also wanted “a guild of technical art” that would “develop into a significant commercial enterprise, where skilled craftsmen could find well paid work”. It is unclear whether the idea to found a Guild came from Gilbert, or was already in the Committee’s mind. 

Work on the Guild began in November 1898, and in 1899 a cottage and land was purchased in Station Street. Gilbert also negotiated with the art school to use some of their rooms in the Crescent. The Guild’s premises were built in 1899 by John Bowen to plans drawn up by Crouch and Butler. 

In the early years of the Guild its members worked from individual workshops and studios in Bromsgrove, Birmingham, London, etc. It was Walter Gilbert who organised the work from the central premises in Station Street in Bromsgrove, which was the location of the main metalwork department. 

Richard Tapp ran the wood shop that produced furniture and later became the woodcarving shop. This shop was located at Moat Mill in Bromsgrove. In 1901 the guild bought equipment for jewellery making and rented an enamelling shop in Bromsgrove where gem and fine metal work was produced. The Guild also set up a plaster workshop in Puddle Wharf, Stoke Heath, which was run by Henry Ludlow. 

George Percy Bankart joined the business in partnership with Henry Ludlow in 1899. In 1903 the plaster workshop was expanded and an associated lead workshop was established. The lead shop was initially based in rooms rented from the Bromsgrove School of Art and then later moved to Station Street. At this time the Guild bought the shop from Ludlow and Bankart. The Bromsgrove Guild participated in 1900 in the Exposition Universelle in Paris and was awarded nine medals.

In 1901 the metal workshop was expanded. By 1902 representatives of the Guild were based in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle and the West Country. They also frequently exhibited their members’ realisations in Liverpool, Leeds, Bolton, Bristol and London. In 1903 the Guild took part in the exhibition of the Arts and Craft Exhibition Society in London that promoted the display of decorative arts alongside fine arts. These exhibitions were important in the flowering of the British Arts and Crafts Movement in the decades prior to World War I.

In 1905 the Guild was commissioned to work on Aston Webb's project to provide railings and gates enclosing Buckingham Palace. The Guild's employees designed and made the gates and the Queen Victoria Memorial. The project was completed in 1908. 

By 1905 the satellite workshops in Birmingham were supplying stained glass, leaded glass, embroidery, cartoons and painted designs. All other work, including mosaic and furniture making, was being completed in Bromsgrove. A year later Archibald John Davies established a glass workshop in Bromsgrove.

On 1 July 1906 Gilbert and Whitehouse dissolved their partnership and on 9 July William McCandlish became Gilbert's new partner.

The Guild executed numerous medallic works in the early 1900s although only one medal was cast, the rest being struck. In 1907 Ernest Cowper set up the Guild's new foundry in Station Street. Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner produced the Guild's garden statuary commissions from the workshop in Weaman Street in Birmingham, from circa 1913 onwards. Among other realisations, their collaboration included the public works as the Liverpool Cathedral reredos for architect Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), the Masonic Peace Memorial's Grand Temple gates for architects Winston Newman and H.V. Ashley, the Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace gates for architect Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930).

In December 1921 the company became a limited company which was registered in June 1922. 

During the 1920s the metalwork department produced decorative pieces in a wide variety of materials (bronze, iron, lead), name plates and memorial tablets. The Guild also offered modelling, carving and woodwork, stained glass, and mural decoration. It opened branches in Belfast and New York. Towards the end of the decade the firm became involved in the production of standardized goods including: signs, gates, rails, casements, canopies, memorial plaques, ecclesiastical objects, sundials, pendant light fittings, etc. 

The Guild’s income suffered from the depression during the 1930s. In its final twenty years (ca. 1946-1966) the company was managed by George Whewell. By this stage the firm had lost much of its specialist expertise which made Whewell to sub-contract many of the Guild’s post-war commissions. As a result the size of the workforce steadily declined until there was only a skeleton staff.

After his career as a director at the Guild from 1899 until August 1918, Gilbert moved over to H.H. Martyn & Co. (since 1900 Ltd) (1888-1971) where he acted as the assistant manager of the sculpting and architectural decoration business. His son was also employed as a modeller by this company. After Gilbert had left the Guild, Weingartner also ceased working at the Bromsgrove Guild around 1921 and also choose for  H.H. Martyn & Co. The company H.H. Martyn & Co. had been founded in 1888 in London by Herbert Henry Martin, a carver of stone, marble and wood, specialised in gravestones, memorials and ecclesiastical decoration. The company employed wood, stone and plaster carvers, metal and glass workers and also had studios in Cheltenham and Birmingham.  H.H. Martyn & Co. Ltd was a company with a reputation for excellence and a wide range of activities that was unique for its time. Father Walter and son Donald collaborated on many works. Walter Gilbert retired in 1940 and died six years later on 23 January in Littlehampton (Sussex), Gilbert. The Hanbury church St Mary the Virgin in Worcestershire preserves the memorial that Donald Gilbert created in memory of his father and Weingartner.

An extensive list of works by Walter Gilbert is mentioned on the internet (cfr infra the literature refrences) and includes the works realised by Gilbert himself and those made in collaboration with other artists such as Louis Weingartner with the Bromsgrove Guild and H. H. Martyn & Co (Ltd) and with his son Donald Gilbert and H. H. Martyn & Co (Ltd).

Walter Gilbert participated in many exhibitions including those at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1884 and Leeds City Art Gallery in 1902 and 1906. During his lifetime Gilbert also involved himself with the design of glass and garden furnishings.

In 1927, the February issue of Architectural Review featured Gilbert’s and Weingartner’s lead sculpture of a Fawn (1928) and Leveret sculptures in an article on the garden of Mr F. Tillotson (Hillside, Heaton, Lancashire). This lead garden sculpture of a young fawn seated on a square base, holding a set of windpipes with one finger raised was signed in the cast W.G Scs. L.W. '28'. Other works of their garden statuary can be seen in Gilbert and Weingartner's Sculpture in the Garden.

Louis Weingartner (Swiss, ° unknown – 1934) presumably casted the Rapscallion

The Swiss-born artist Louis Weingartner probably originated from Lucerne where Weingartner's brother Seraphim became director of the Lucerne School of Arts and Crafts. Louis may have trained in Florence before working for the goldsmiths J. K. Bossard und Karl Th. Bossard in Lucerne. Here a fellow worker was Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel (Lucerne 1874 – U.K. 1930) who later became a partner or associate after they both moved ca. 1900 to Britain. They shared a studio in London (ca. 1902-1904) and worked on various commissions including one in 1902. They both started ca. 1902 to work for the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts. The details of Weingartner's Swiss background are based on Ken Fackrell's research into his grandfather's, Joseph Hodel's, life.

Weingartner would be active in England from around 1900 until 1930. He was a designer, jeweller, medallist, modeller, sculptor and metal worker. He was active as a jeweller at the School of Art in Birmingham before het worked on various commissions for the Bromsgrove Guild including one in 1902. The cooperation with Gilbert started around 1903. Weingartner moved to Bromsgrove in 1904 and became the Guild's chief designer, sculptor and metal worker.

For Weingartner this was the start of a long association with Walter Gilbert concentrating on works in metal and in the early 1920s leading to collaboration with H.H. Martyn & Co in Cheltenham after 1918. In that year Walter Gilbert became assistant manager of the company for five years with responsibilities for artistic direction. Weingartner left the Bromsgrove Guild in 1921. He returned to Lucerne in 1930 where he died in 1934.

Weingartner exhibited his Aphrodite Comb during The Spring Exhibition in Leeds City Art Gallery in 1902.
He also produced a model of the great lock that was commissioned for the Buckingham Palace project in ca. 1905-1908.

In 1927, the February issue of Architectural Review featured Gilbert’s and Weingartner’s lead sculpture of a Fawn (1928) and Leveret sculptures in an article on the garden of Mr F. Tillotson (Hillside, Heaton, Lancashire). This lead garden sculpture of a young fawn seated on a square base, holding a set of windpipes with one finger raised was signed in the cast W.G Scs. L.W. '28'. Other works of their garden statuary can be seen in Gilbert and Weingartner's Sculpture in the Garden.

Literature: Medhurst, Ph. (2012), Walter Gilbert: The Romance in Metalwork. An Annotated Inventory of Works by Architectural a Sculptor Walter Gilbert and Associates; Townshend, J. (1999), 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 9-52; Goodwin, M. & Townshend, J. (1999), 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 53-69; There is an extensive list of Guild commissions in the West Midlands (alphabetically by location) in Goodwin, M. & Lammas, Th. (1999), 'A Gazetteer of Bromsgrove Guild work in the West Midlands' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 91-125; Catalogue of the Spring Exhibition (1902), Leeds: The City Art Gallery, (no 237), p. 26; website 'Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011: http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1208550288 (consulted 09.10.2015); website 'Louis Weingartner', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011: http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1243854725 (consulted 09.10.2015); 'Bromsgrove Guild', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib4_1241533221 (consulted 09.10.2015); website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Walter_Gilbert (consulted 09.10.2015). 

Rudolf Marcuse studied at the academy in Berlin and became active as a sculptor in Charlottenburg. He left a very rich oeuvre in bronze, cast iron, alabaster, marble and china.

Information on Marcuse becomes very difficult to find after about 1928. However, Dr Hilary Howes, Postdoctoral Fellow of the Australian National University in Canberra, in association with a research project conducted by Dr Tom Murray of the Macquarie University in Sydney, is seeking to locate a bronze bust of Douglas Grant, an Australian Aboriginal WWI veteran, made by Marcuse during Grant’s internment in the German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Wünsdorf. An image of the bust of Douglas Grant is available on the website of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Dr Howes has established that Marcuse departed Bremen for Southampton in England, on 30 October 1936. He took up residence in London, where he lived until his death in April 1940.  In a letter dated 2 January 1940 to the Ministry of Information, held in the War Artists Archive at the International War Museum in London, he states that he had permission to work in England as a freelance artist (sculptor and photographer).

Marcuse’s personal life is also a bit of a mystery: he married a German Jewish sculptor, Elisabeth Seligsohn (born Schlomer), in November 1915, but nothing so far is known about her and/or her artistic career. But she did not accompany him to England, and in 1939 he remarried.  His second wife, Alice Marcuse, inherited his effects in England following his death, but it’s not known or confirmed whether this included his POW (prisoner-of-war) sculptures. These were sculptures of various nationalities created by Rudolf Marcuse in German POW camps, which had been originally destined for the Reichskriegsmuseum (Imperial War Museum) in Berlin (cfr infra). A letter written by Marcuse to the British Ministry of Information in 1940 indicates that he took at least some of his statues of POWs with him to London when he fled Nazi Germany. The German anthropologist Leonhard Adam, who met Marcuse in London in the beginning of 1940, recalled some years later that Marcuse had been invited to offer his collection of ‘exotic busts’ to London’s War Memorial Museum (presumably the Imperial War Museums, IWM). Anyway, the IWM staff confirmed to Dr Hilary Howes that they do not hold any items by Marcuse in their collections.

Remarkable in Marcuse’s oeuvre are these POW busts and statues of prisoners of different nationalities and races that he created in the German prison camps during World War I. But he also made monuments such as the one in honour of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) that stands in Berlin and the bronze bust of him that was exhibited in 1909 in front of  the schoolhouse in the Grosse Hamburgerstrasse no. 27. He also created the monument in Hamburg’s Stellingen quarter of the famous Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1813) - with at his side the lion Triest that once had saved his life in a dangerous situation in the zoo - the German animal trainer, merchant of wild animals to many European zoos, creator of the modern zoo with more natural habitats and founder of the Tierpark Hagenbeck. Besides larger work, he created small bronze and alabaster sculptures, china designs for the Schwarzburger Werkstätten, für Porzellankunst, the Könichliche Porzellanmanufaktur Berlin (1911-1913) and Rosenthal AG (1913-ca. 1919) ), and work in cast iron.

Dr. Max Osborn published in the periodical Ost und West: illustrierte Monatsschrift für das gesamte Judentum edited by Leo Wintz in the November/December 1919 edition the article Rudolf Marcuses Völkertypen aus dem Weltkrieg (vol. 11/12, p. 281-286). The article is dedicated to the above mentioned POW sculptures (busts and statues) that Marcuse made during the First World War in the German war prison camps. Ludwig Justi (1876-1957), director of the Berliner Nationalgalerie from 1909 until 1933, had developed this great plan for the new immense Reichskriegsmuseum that he saw as the ideales Themenmuseum (‘ideal theme museum’) and had commissioned Marcuse. Justi wanted to use this unlikely ‘war opportunity’ – during which so many different cultures and nations were far more easy to study – to make an anthropologic overview of all nationalities and races in one separate museum hall. Justi – in the idea that Germany would win this Weltkrieg, didn’t want to conceive this new museum as a ‘hall of fame’ or as one great overview of heroic victory and battle scenes, he wanted to emphasize the potential, the capacities, the ingenuity of Germany by many separate ‘theme rooms’. In his vision this brand new museum was a tool for broader public education. But the Reichskriegsmuseum was never built because of the opposition against Justi’s vision and museum policy, and the German defeat. The complete series of Marcuse’s Völkertypen sculptures were exhibited during a short period in the Berliner Künstlerhause.

Dr. Bernd Ernsting, chairman of the board of the LETTER Stiftung in Cologne, provided the information that the centre has since 2008 a bust by Marcuse of a Japanese man carved in wood in collection and a statue in bronze of a Turkish man. The LETTER Stiftung has a letter that Marcuse wrote to a Mister Starck in which he described two prisoners: Hadj Mahomer ben Landoni from Morocco and the Scotsman John Mackie. The LETTER Stiftung supposes that there's a chance that the archives of the 'Staatliche Museen zu Berlin' preserve correspondence between Marcuse and the museum direktor in Berlin, Ludwig Justi, written during the four years that Marcuse worked in the prison camps. 

Marcuse took part in many exhibitions such as the Berliner Grosse Kunst-Ausstellung in 1906, 1907, 1926, 1928 and 1929; the Jahresausstellung in the Münchner Glaspalast i.a. in 1906, 1907, 1911; the Sonderausstellung Gusseisen in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin in 1916 and in the Berliner Künstlerhause in – presumably – 1919.

Rudolf Marcuse published: Völkertypen. Eine Sammlung von Kunstblättern in Kupfertiefdruck. Nach skulpturen von Rudolf Marcuse, (no date: ca. 1918-1919), Leipzig: Buchhandlung Gustav Fock, double page with title and index, 37 quarto sized photographs of sculptures by Marcuse in an illustrated half-canvas portfolio.

POW (prisoner-of-war) sculpture Bust of a Tonkinese man created during World War I (1914-1918) (cfr provenance)

Tonkin is he northernmost part of Vietnam

Untersberger marble

Signed on the left side of the base rudolf marcuse

Total H. 49,50 cm; base: W. 13,50 cm, D. 13,50 cm

Provenance: this is the bust of the Tonkinese (or Tongkinese) man described on p. 284 in Dr. Max Osborn’s article Rudolf Marcuses Völkertypen aus dem Weltkrieg: “Auch der merkwürdige Kopf eines Tongkinesen steht in Stein vor uns: der Untersberger Marmor war wie geschaffen dazu, die klare Glätte dieser Gesichtsformen wiederzugeben”.

The Jewish Museum’s collection includes sculptures but also images depicted in Rudolf Marcuse’s portfolio Völkertypen, including this Tonkinese bust, a frontal portrait bust of a man with short hair and pronounced cheekbones, made after a sculpture by Rudolf Marcuse. It’s a copper-plate printing (rotogravure) on cardboard from 1919 (H. 32 cm W. 22 cm) and it carries lower left the signature RUDOLF MARCUSE, below the inscription Tongkinese and lower right Tieftrück der Rotophot A.-G. Berlin (Intaglio by Rotophot A.-G. Berlin).

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 9) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 200; Borgmann, K. (November 2007), Review of Symposium aus Anlass des 50. Todestages von Ludwig Justi (1876–1957), H-Soz-u-Kult, [H-Net Reviews website], http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=28493 (consulted 26 Oktober 2013); Osborn, M. (November/December 1919), ‘Rudolf Marcuses Völkertypen aus dem Weltkrieg’ in Ost und West: illustrierte Monatsschrift für das gesamte Judentum,  vol. 19, no. 11/12, p. 281-286; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 24) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 79;  [hbz – Digitalisierte Drucke website]  http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2008/38064/original/OstWest_1919_11.pdf (consulted 26 Oktober 2013); Website of the Jewish Museum in Berlin showing the copper-plate printing http://objekte.jmberlin.de/object/jmb-obj-185617; Rapsilber, M. (1906, October – 1907, March), ‘Rudolf Marcuse – Berlin.  Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration’, Illustrierte Monatshefte für moderne Malerei, Plastik, Architektur, Wohnungskunst u. künstlerisches Frauen-Arbeiten, (no 19), 354-359 (retrieved from http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dkd1906_1907/0259); Rapsilber, M. (1909, March), ‘Rudolf Marcuse.  Ost und West’, Illustrierte Monatsschrift für das gesamte Judentum, (no 3), 147-154 (retrieved from http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/2599296); website http://site.die-maus-bremen.de/Datenbanken/auswanderer/passagierli/ (Familienname: Marcuse); website of the Letterstiftung www.letter-stiftung.de. 

Raoul Larche was a sculptor of busts, groups, religious compositions, objets d’art and decorative pieces, but in fact he made his debut as a painter and besides his career as a sculptor he continued painting all his life. In the beginning of this career, around 1890, he realised a number of important impressionist paintings, later on symbolist paintings. Blessed with a very individual talent, he was quickly noticed by the masters of modern sculpture of his time. The suggestive power of Larche's work situates him amongst the Art Nouveau artists.

Even though he had his studio in the Rue Mornay No 6 in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, he often stayed in Seine-et-Oise in Coubron (nowadays Seine-Saint-Denis) where the house where he lived and worked still exists. He died on 3 June 1912 after he was hit by a car in the streets of Lagny whilst walking on the arm of his friend, the banker Max. His grave in the cemetery of Coubron is ornated with a reproduction of one of his own sculptures. The municipality placed a memorial in honor of Larche in the town hall park. It is crowned with a bronze group: Les Faunes (The Fauns), a work by the artist himself. Coubron houses several works of Raoul Larche: Bust of Mrs Larche, Ephebe, Oreste. Mrs. Larche suggested to donate works of her husband to the city of Bordeaux on condition that a Salle Raoul Larche would be installed at the Musée de Peinture et Sculpture. On 5 December 1921 the hall was inaugurated, but it was closed in the early 1930s. The square of the town hall Saint-André-de-Cubzac bears his name, as an avenue in Coubron and in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles.

After he studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, he started in 1878 his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he was taught by François Jouffroy (1806-1882), Auguste Dumont (1801-1884), Alexandre Falguière (1931-1900), Jean-Léon Jérôme (1824-1904) and Eugene Dela Planche (1836-1891). He debuted in 1881 in Paris, at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he remained a loyal exhibitor until 1911. He obtained the deuxième Prix de Rome de Sculpture in 1886, the médaille de troisième classe in 1890, the médaille de première classe in 1893, the médaille d’or in 1900 at the Exposition universelle, and finally in 1903 a médaille d’or du Salon. The recipient of France’s highest civilian honour in 1900, the Légion d’Honneur, he was promoted to officier in 1910. As a member of the jury at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and at the Salon des Artistes Français, in 1904 he entered the committee of the Société des Artistes Français. In 1920, the Salon organized at the Grand Palais a retrospective exhibition of his oeuvre. On 14 June 1937, all works of Raoul Larche that were still in his studio, were auctioned at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris.

Raoul Larche was one of the many artists who were inspired by Loïe (or Loie) Fuller (1862-1928), a famous American dancer who was the pioneer of modern dance and theater lighting techniques. Due to his design of a lamp in 1901, inspired by the evocative power of this dancer, he belonged to the group of sculptors who broke with academic art and it brought him wide fame. As a result, he created a large series of objets d'art and decorative pieces in bronze and tin (lamps, vases, chandeliers, decorative bowls, etc.) that were cast by the Parisian art foundry Siot-Decauville.

Ca. 1900

Bronze with green patina

Signed on right RAOUL LARCHE and with foundry stamp Siot Decauville Fondeur Paris

H. 45 cm, Diam. base ca. 27 cm

Museums: Agen, Bordeaux, Cette, Dijon, Paris, Saint-Étienne, Roanne, Troyes, Luxemburg.

Sources:  Bénézit, E. (vol. 8) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 277; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 22) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 380.

Maurice Guiraud-Rivière was a French Art Deco sculptor, painter and draftsman. He studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was a pupil of sculptor and painter Marius Jean Antonin Mercie (1845-1916). He exhibited in Paris at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français from 1907 and at the Salon des Humoristes. And in 1914 he became member of the Société des Artistes Français. In the 1930s, he participated in numerous exhibitions, for example in 1937 at the Exposition Internationale de Paris.

Guiraud-Rivière worked mainly in the Art Deco style and created a lot of bronze or chryselefantine (bronze and ivory) figurines. His main themes were women (including nudes, Oriental dancers), allegoric figures, animals, horse racing, sports, aviation and cars. Besides work created in bronze and ivory, he also worked with marble, terracotta and ceramic.

Guiraud-Rivière made in particular fame with his car mascots: ‘car accessories’ made in the period 1911-1930 became a rage and are nowadays collector's items. A few examples: Georges Carpentier (French boxer) (1920-1925), Femme à la boule (1920), L'équilibre au vent (1925), Aida (1925), Icare (1920), Pierrot a la lanterne (1925) Archer égyptien (Les Automobiles Grégoire (founded in 1902; 1918-1924), Singe se Mirant (1920), Kangourou Art Déco (1925) He also designed for the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres in the period from 1911 to 1923. His graphic work was reflected in humorous drawings and a trip to Morocco in 1933 inspired him to Oriental watercolours.

Most of his work was cast in bronze by the foundry Etling (founded in 1909), specializing in Art Deco bronzes. This foundry had a lot of artists as a customer (including the famous Demetre Chiparus, born Dumitru Chiparus; 1886-1947).

1920s

Patinated bronze on a black marble base

Signed on right on the base GUIRAUD-RIVIÈRE

H. 35 cm, W. 49 cm, D. 29 cm

Source: Bénézit, E. (vol. 6) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 587.

Josuë Dupon was a very talented and productive artist. His oeuvre includes sculpting (sculptures and medals), painting and graphic work. Although he didn’t have the ambition to become an innovator, he was familiar with all every genre and he mastered every technique and material. He was one of the first artists that started in 1893 to carve ivory (in combination with gold and other materials): his Diana (1897) was bought by the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). He was an animalier pur-sang who was inspired by almost any animal species and he had the talent to capture their specific anatomy as well as their character. It’s the proof that Dupon was a truly realist who’s technical perfect art together with his dramatic feeling, sense for decorative complexity and slight tendency for idealizing, matched completely with the 19th century view on art.  

Thanks to his elder brother Karel, Josuë Dupon started at first in the studios of the neo-gothic sculptor and painter Clemens Carbon (1835-1907) and Modest Verlinden in Roeselare. He followed evening courses at the academy in Roeselare and Antwerp (1884-1885; under Jozef Geefs (1808-1885) and Jacob De Braekeleer (1823-1906)). After finishing successfully his studies (1885-1887) at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (NHISKA) under Thomas Vinçotte (1850-1925), he obtained at the Salon in Antwerp a first golden medal with his bronze group Samson doodt de leeuw (Samson kills the lion) in 1891, as well as the second prize sculpting in the Prix de Rome. From that year on, his work was exhibited on a regular base at national and international exhibitions.

Dupon was also member of several art societies: the Roeselaarse Kunstkring (1888), founded by his brother Karel, and De Scalden, a group of young painters, sculptors and architects in Antwerp who laid the base for L’Art appliqué. 

After the Koninklijk Museum Antwerpen bought his spectacular bronze group Gier die zijn prooi verdedigt (Vulture defending his prey), the artist really started to built a career. He received official commissions for monuments and façade sculptures, obtained several important awards and was appointed as professor at the Antwerp academy. The animalier Albéric Collin (1886-1962), the modernist sculptor Willy Kreitz (1903-1982) and figurative sculptor Albert Poels (1903-1984) – who became very well-known artists – studied under him. He was a member of the board of the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts. Dupon became a well respected and reputed authority who’s work stood for high quality. His reputation as animalier was confirmed when his bronze Kameeldrijver (Camel driver) in 1901 and two bronze groups in 1903 were installed at the entrance of the Antwerp Zoo. His studio De Reiger (The Heron) in the Gulden Vlieslaan in Berchem (Antwerp) remained untouched until his daughter’s death in 1986.

Brown/green patinated bronze

Signed on base Josuë Dupon

H. 59 cm,  base W. 49 cm, D. 20 cm

Provenance: the artist’s studio – acquired by the artist’s descendants

Museums: Antwerp, Brussels, Bucharest

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 4) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 879; Denys, L., & Verbraeken, P. (eds) (1990), Rembrandt Bugatti en de Belgische dierensculptuur 1860-1930 (exh. cat.), Hessenhuis, Antwerp: Stad Antwerpen, p. 115-125, 217-218; Engelen-Marx (vol. 3) (2006), La sculpture en Belgique à partir de 1830, Leuven: Imprimerie Van der Poorten, p. 1394-1401; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 1) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerp: De Gulden Roos, p. 345-346; 150 Jaar Monumentale Animaliersculptuur – ZOO Antwerpen 3 juli – 12 september 1993 (1993) (exh. cat.), Antwerp: Esco, p. 18-23, p. 90-91 and p. 157.

Josuë Dupon was a very talented and productive artist. His oeuvre includes sculpting (sculptures and medals), painting and graphic work. Although he didn’t have the ambition to become an innovator, he was familiar with all every genre and he mastered every technique and material. He was one of the first artists that started in 1893 to carve ivory (in combination with gold and other materials): his Diana (1897) was bought by the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). He was an animalier pur-sang who was inspired by almost any animal species and he had the talent to capture their specific anatomy as well as their character. It’s the proof that Dupon was a truly realist who’s technical perfect art together with his dramatic feeling, sense for decorative complexity and slight tendency for idealizing, matched completely with the 19th century view on art.  

Thanks to his elder brother Karel, Josuë Dupon started at first in the studios of the neo-gothic sculptor and painter Clemens Carbon (1835-1907) and Modest Verlinden in Roeselare. He followed evening courses at the academy in Roeselare and Antwerp (1884-1885; under Jozef Geefs (1808-1885) and Jacob De Braekeleer (1823-1906)). After finishing successfully his studies (1885-1887) at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (NHISKA) under Thomas Vinçotte (1850-1925), he obtained at the Salon in Antwerp a first golden medal with his bronze group Samson doodt de leeuw (Samson kills the lion) in 1891, as well as the second prize sculpting in the Prix de Rome. From that year on, his work was exhibited on a regular base at national and international exhibitions.

Dupon was also member of several art societies: the Roeselaarse Kunstkring (1888), founded by his brother Karel, and De Scalden, a group of young painters, sculptors and architects in Antwerp who laid the base for L’Art appliqué. 

After the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) bought his spectacular bronze group Gier die zijn prooi verdedigt (Vulture defending his prey), the artist really started to built a career. He received official commissions for monuments and façade sculptures, obtained several important awards and was appointed as professor at the Antwerp academy. The animalier Albéric Collin (1886-1962), the modernist sculptor Willy Kreitz (1903-1982) and figurative sculptor Albert Poels (1903-1984) – who became very well-known artists – studied under him. He was a member of the board of the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts. Dupon became a well respected and reputed authority who’s work stood for high quality. His reputation as animalier was confirmed when his bronze Kameeldrijver (Camel driver) in 1901 and two bronze groups in 1903 were installed at the entrance of the Antwerp Zoo. His studio De Reiger (The Heron) in the Gulden Vlieslaan in Berchem (Antwerp) remained untouched until his daughter’s death in 1986.

1909   

Brown patinated bronze

Signed and dated on base left at the back on base Josuë Dupon 1909

On the right side of the base the foundry name FONDERIE NATLE DES BRONZES ANC. FIRME J. PETERMANN ST GILLES - BRUXELLES

Bronze: H. ca. 20 cm,  W. 43,50 cm, D. 21 cm

Museums: Antwerp, Brussels, Bucharest

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 4) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 879; Denys, L., & Verbraeken, P. (eds) (1990), Rembrandt Bugatti en de Belgische dierensculptuur 1860-1930 (exh. cat.), Hessenhuis, Antwerp: Stad Antwerpen, p. 115-125, 217-218; Engelen-Marx (vol. 3) (2006), La sculpture en Belgique à partir de 1830, Leuven: Imprimerie Van der Poorten, p. 1394-1401; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 1) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerp: De Gulden Roos, p. 345-346; 150 Jaar Monumentale Animaliersculptuur – ZOO Antwerpen 3 juli – 12 september 1993 (1993) (exh. cat.), Antwerp: Esco, p. 18-23, p. 90-91 and p. 157.

Bronze

H. 30,50 cm, W. 25 cm, D. 38 cm

This herm of a satyr playing the plagiaulos, a flute with angled mouthpiece, is a 19th century bronze after the marble herm that was found in Rome (Lazio). The sculpture dates from the 1st century and is executed in the high classical style, but was actually sculpted at a later date. The artist is unknown. This marble herm is part of  the British Museum's collection.

Patinated bronze

H. 98 cm, Base: W. 17,50 cm, D. 17,50 cm

Source:  The British Museum,  museum number 1805,0703.26, website http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=866965001&objectid=459938 (consulted 08.10.2016).

Sculptor Jean Antoine Idrac started his studies at the age of seventeen. He was a student under Pierre Jules Cavelier (1814-1896), Jean Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume (1822-1905) and Alexandre Falguière (1931-1900) at the École des Beaux-Arts. He first signed up for the competition for the Prix de Rome in 1869, prize he won in 1873, and subsequently completed his training in Italy. It goes without saying that the sculptors of the Italian Quattrocento influenced him - especially Donatello (1386-1466) - and he drew inspiration from their work. Immediately after his return in 1877, he debuted that same year at the Salon and gained a troisième médaille de première classe in 1879. He received commissions for the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. He realized statues of the chemist Lavoisier (1743-1794) and the poet and dramatist Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) for the main façade of the building and those facing the Quai. And he also made the statue of the provost of the Parisian merchants in the 14th century, Étienne Marcel (†1358). Idrac 's career was short: he died prematurely in 1884 of typhus. He was posthumously honoured with a medal in Munich in 1885.

The historical novel Salammbô was written between 1858 and 1862 by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), famous for his Madame Bovary (1856-1857). Salammbô is set in Carthage in the 3rd century BCE shortly before and during the Mercenary Revolt (ca. 240 BCE) that took place shortly after the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage (264-241 BCE). Mercenaries who had rendered services to Carthage and who were supported in their revolt by Libyan settlements rebelling against Carthage’s control by. Flaubert’s novel is mainly based on Book I of Histories of the Greek historian Polybios (ca. 200-118 BCE). He wrote about the rise of Rome from the beginning of the Second Punic War to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth over the period from 264 to 146 BCE aiming to cover and explain this historical rise and fall in a wider context of the Hellenistic world’s History. Salammbô is the beautiful daughter of statesman and Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca ( 270-228 BCE). Mathô, leader of the Libyan mercenaries and Narr'Havas, leader of the Numidian mercenaries to whom Salammbô was promised in case of victory, are longing for her. The scene of Salammbô with the snake is set in the tenth chapter: Schachabarim, high priest of the moon goddess Tanit, sends her to the enemy in order to seduce him and to steal back the Zaïmph, the sacred veil of Tanit on which the fate of Carthage depends and which had been stolen by Mathô and his Greek slave Spendius. As she undresses to the rhythm of the music of harps and flutes, the python rises and gazes at her with his carbuncle eyes, slides back down and Salammbô allows the serpent twining around her body and brings the python’s head against her mouth. The snake disappears when the music stops. Once in Mathô’s tent she seduces him, manages to steal the Zaïmph and accomplishes her mission. On the day of her marriage to Narr'Havas her brave act - which brought Carthage victory - costs her own life, and that of Mathô who was captured and will be tortured to death.

Idrac sought to explore the decorative possibilities of the human form through a series of eccentric and diverse sculptures. In this depection of Salammbô she embraces the winding of the serpent, transfixed in a graceful Renaissance pose.

Late 19th century (between ca. 1863 and 1884)

Brown patinated bronze

Signed on the back side on the base under the left foot A. IDRAC

Foundry stamp at right Thiébaut Frères, Fumière & Gavignot successeurs

Sculpture: H. 53,50 cm, W. 19 cm, D. 19 cm; base: H. 4,5 cm

Museums: Lille, Chicago, Copenhagen, Paris, Quimper, Toulouse, Versailles

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 7) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 320-321; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 18) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 456.

Bronze with green patina

H. 45 cm, W. 25 cm, D. 25 cm

Career & personal life

Antoine Coysevox became a sculptor of monuments, groups, busts and bas-reliefs. He was born and baptized on 29 September 1640 in the parish of Saint Nizier, in Lyon as: “Anthoine, fils à Pierre Quoyzeveau, maistre menuisier, et à Ysabeau Morel, sa famme, …” (Anthoine, son of Pierre Quoyzeveau, master chair-maker, and of Ysabeau Morel, his wife, …. The artist signed until 1670 with the spelling Anthoine Quoyzeveau in the aforementioned act of his baptism, and then adopted the name Antoine Coysevox, different from his name at birth. Around the age of seventeen he came to Paris to perfect his skills in sculpture. He became a student of Louis Relambert, whose niece Marguerite Quillerier he married in 1666, daughter of Noël Quillerier who was a painter and a valet to the king. The same year Coysevox became already the king’s sculptor and executed some sculptures for the Louvre. Ten months after the wedding, his young wife died and made him decide to accept the offer by the bishop of Strasbourg, cardinal William Egon of Furstenberg (1629-1704) to decorate his palace in Saverne (Alsace). He came back after about four years in 1671 to Paris, but in the end returned to Lyon. In 1676 he was admitted to the Académie française and appointed assistant professor. In 1677 he returned definitively to Paris where he became professor that same year. He then married Claude Bourdy (or Bourdict), sister of the sculptor Pierre Bourdy, working for the king. Twelve children were born of this particularly fertile commitment. After being deputy, Coysevox became rector of the Académie française in 1694. In 1698, he was granted a licence for housing in the Louvre. From 1702 to 1705 he was director of the Académie française and in 1716 he became chancellor.

Two famous equestrian sculptures: La renommée (du Roi) (Fame) and Mercure (Mercury)

Coysevox was extremely productive in France and worked for the castles of Versailles, Trianon, Marly-le-Roi, Saint-Cloud and Paris. He represented eminently the art of sculpture of the period and the classic style.

He received a commission in 1698 for a group of two equestrian statues to honour the glory of king Louis XIV. They were carved in Carrara marble in 1701-1702, and placed on either side of the upper part of the basin at the entrance to the park of the Château de Marly in Marly-le-Roi. The sculptures were transported to the west entrance of the Tuileries Gardens in 1719. In 1986 they were moved to the Louvre museum and replaced by replicas.

Political iconography

After the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, and the return of prosperity to France, Louis XIV entrusted Jules Hardouin-Mansart, his Superintendent of Buildings, to commission splendid statuary for the park at the Château de Marly. Antoine Coysevox was chosen to sculpt two equestrian groups in Carrara marble, to adorn either side of the balustrade overlooking the basin of the château. The resulting sculptures represented La renommée (du Roi) (Fame) and Mercure (Mercury), each astride the legendary winged horse Pegasus, symbolizing the king's peacetime and wartime prestige. Both horses rear above military trophies representing the king's victories. Pegasus, the symbol of poetry, is guided by Mercury, the divine messenger and god of trade, symbolizing the benefits of the return to peace. The trophies under Mercury’s rearing horse include a shield evoking the Spanish Succession, with Minerva, the goddess of war, presenting the portrait of Philip V to the Spanish people. The statue of Fame, wearing a laurel wreath and holding an olive branch, is sounding the trumpet of truth to proclaim the king's warlike strength. The trophies here include a shield adorned with a winged Victory holding a palm and crown. The lion skin evokes Hercules, the mythological hero of legendary strength, to whom the king was often compared.

Technical prowess

Coysevox's work was a technical masterpiece in terms of size (such large marble sculptures had never yet been made in France), speed, and skill. The groups were made from monolithic blocks, with no joins, by carving into the mass and clearing the projecting parts. Marble is a fragile material that can easily be broken by an impact or intrinsic flaw, but Coyesvox took the risk of clearing frail pieces such as the long, tapering stem of the trumpet, supported by the figure's upraised arm. He completed his sculpture in barely two years (1701-1702), proudly drawing attention to this feat in the text engraved on the rocks: “les deux groupes ont esté faites en deux ans” (“both sculptures were realised in two years”.

A personal creation

Coysevox could also be proud of having invented the model for this sculpture. Previous sculptors under Louis XIV had worked according to the instructions or drawings of painter Charles Lebrun (1619-1690), then architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708), who were successively responsible for fine arts policy. Although Coysevox's composition remained faithful to the harmonious art of Versailles and gave greater importance to the front view, these dynamic groups also marked a baroque inflection in court art with the riders, clearly outlined against the sky, balancing on their rearing horses above their trophies of arms.

Ca. 1810-1830

Probably made in Paris

Patinated bronze

Not signed

H. 61 cm, W. 44 cm, D. 17 cm

This patinated bronze sculpture Fame is a reduced replica of the majestic statue in Carrara marble La Renommée (du Roi) by Antoine Coysevox created in 1701-1702. It shows Fame wearing a laurel wreath on her head, holding an olive branch and playing the trumpet of truth to proclaim the king's martial’s strength. She sits astride the winged horse Pegasus leaping over a shield adorned with a winged Victory holding a palm and crown, a lion pelt evoking the mythological hero of legendary strength Hercules - to whom the king was often compared - and armour. The equestrian group rests on a rectangular base. Fame together with Mercury (Mercure), also astride the legendary winged horse Pegasus, had been commissioned by the French king Louis XIV (1638-1715) in 1698 - to memorialize his glory - for the upper part of the Bassin de l'Abreuvoir at the entrance to the park of the Château de Marly. In 1719 they were moved to the western terrace of the Tuileries Gardens but were more recently replaced by replicas in 1986. The originals are since then exhibited in the Musée du Louvre.

Literature: Bénézit, E. (vol. 4) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 56-58; Bresc, G. & Pingeot, A. (vol. 2) (1986), Sculptures des jardins du Louvre, du Carrousel et des Tuileries, Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, p. 132-138; Les Chevaux de Marly, (exhibition) Musée-promenade de Marly-le-Roi, Louveciennes, 19.10 - 15.12.1985, 1985.

1907

Green patinated bronze

Signed at right side and dated

Foundry name on the back side: Fonderia Artistica R .....C (name illegible)

H. sculpture 67 cm, H. base 3 cm, W. 28,50 cm, D. 28 cm

The lyre that the left muse holds up in the hand of her stretched arm is the attribute of the muse Terpsichore, one of the nine muses of the Greek mythology, Zeus’ daughters and goddesses who preside over arts and sciences inspiring those who want to follow in their footsteps. Her name means ‘she who delights in dancing’ and she personificates dance and lyric poetry. Since the other muse doesn’t carry any attribute, she could be Polyhymnia ‘she of many hymns’, the muse of sacred poetry, mime, meditation, geometry and agriculture. But the dancing pose doesn’t correspond with the way she’s usually depicted: standing with a pensive or meditative attitude whether or not leaning on a pillar. On the other hand, since Polyhymnia’s often veiled, the vague expression on her face maybe symbolises a veil? And what to say about the artists personal freedom of interpretation?

The sculptor and medal designer Antonio Rescaldani studied at the Milan ‘Accademia di Brera’ where he installed later on his studio. He exhibited at the 'Bienniale di Venezia' in Venice and in his hometown Milan, where he created numerous tombs for the cemetery ‘Cimitero Monumentale’.

 

Source: Bénézit, E. (vols 1-14) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, vol. 9, p. 596.

 

Pair of bronze urns, each urn with four winged monopodia supporting a basin with egg-and-dart rim, mounted on a square base.

H. 44.4 cm, W. 53.3 cm, D. 53.3 cm

White Carrara marble

H. 95 cm, W. 72 cm, D. ca. 21 cm

End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries

Wax

bas in Griotte rouge Marble

H. 37 cm

Sopraporta from a public building, representing a cock crowing in victory. The cock, known since Antiquity as a symbol of vigilance, has long been an emblem of French national culture because of the similarity between the Latin terms gallus (cock) and gallicus (Gaul). The bird’s bellicosity and fearlessness are also regarded as symbolizing French virtues. Nevertheless, the French cock remains an unofficial national symbol. The martial connotations of the banner and weapons he perches on suggest that in this case the cock symbolizes military courage and/or a particular battle.

Jaune de Sienne marble

H. 85 cm, W. 147 cm, D. ca. 21 cm

Sculptor Fritz Rosenberg started at the academy of Berlin and continued his studies from 1903 to 1906 at the academy in Munich. He participated in the Grossen Berliner Kunst Ausstellung from 1908 until 1910 with smaller works: in 1908 with a fine wax stamp and in 1909 with a Bayadère (female Indian dancer). The Aktiengesellschaft vorm. H. Gladenbeck & Sohn produced a Peacock Bowl (Model nr L 3/50) and a statuette After the Bath (Model nr L 3/273) after Rosenberg's design. For the Wartenberg family, the sculptor designed in 1928 a tomb in the Heerstrasse cemetery in Charlottenburg.

In the Berlin address books, Rosenberg was recorded between 1905 and 1941 with different addresses, initially in Charlottenburg, later in Dahlem and last in Weissensee, where he had a studio for cemetery design in he Lothinger Strasse 26. 

First half of the 20th century

Patinated bronze and marble

Signed on the base F Rosenberg

Foundry stamp on the base HEINZE & BARTH

Provenance: private collection in Zürich

H. 34 cm, W. 44 cm

Plaster

H. 75 cm, W.  84 cm, D. 41 cm
 

Etienne Forestier was a portrait and genre sculptor who started in 1909 to exhibit in Paris at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and between 1914 and 1918 at the Salon des Indépendants.

Dark patinated bronze on a Portor marble base

Signed at right on the backside Etienne Forestier

Foundry stamp at left on the backside Cire C.Valsuani Perdue

Sculpture: H. 26,50 cm; base H. 14 cm, W. 14 cm, D. 11 cm

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 5) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 516; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 18) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 573.

In Ancient Greek mythology Asklepios, son of Apollon and the Trikkaian princess Coronis, was the demigod or heros of medicine and healing,and reputed ancestor of the Asklepiades, the ancient Greek doctors' guild. He represents the healing aspect of medical arts. He had five daughters: Hygieia (goddess/personification of health, cleanliness ans sanitation), Iaso (goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (goddess of the healing process), Aglæa (goddess of beauty, splendour, glory, magnificence and adornment) and Panacea (goddess of universal remedy). He’s mostly depicted with the snake-entwined staff which still remains the symbol of medicine.

Hippocrates (Kos 460 BCE– Larissa 370 BCE) was a Greek physician. He is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is considered to be the father of western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field being the founder of the Hippocratic school of medicine, an intellectual school that revolutionised medicine in Ancient Greece and established medicine as a profession. He was one of the first to proclaim that natural and not supernatural causes were responsible for diseases. He started to diagnose for example physical symptoms and prescribed a specific therapy.

Direct carving in stone

At front of Asklepios: his name in Greek alphabet ΑΣΚΛΕΠΙΟΣ

At right of Asklepios: the monogram M through a triangle and underneath the monogram L

At front of Hippocrates: his name in Latin capitals HIPPOCRATES

At left of Hippocrates: the monogram M through a triangle and underneath the monogram L

H. 57 cm, W. 32 cm, D. 27 cm

Polychromed cast iron

H. 104 cm, Dia. (base) 20 cm

Clodion was a sculptor of groups, figures, busts, low reliefs, statues, public monuments and decorating objects. He also was a very fine drawer known for his remarkable sketches expressing a very delicate sense of elegant and harmonious lines. A highly skilful modeller of clay, Clodion was intensely affected by the new interest in collecting terracottas. While terracotta had been traditionally designed for larger works in more permanent and expensive materials, terracotta sculptures could now be seen as independent works of art revealing the artist's inspiration and touch. Clodion's quickly executed yet detailed terracottas were, as his earliest biographer records “bought by amateurs even before they were finished". He also worked with his brothers in other media, like decorating objects such as candelabra, vases and clocks. They used the immense quantity of drawings Clodion had made during the circa ten years he lived, studied and worked in Italy: representations of antique vases, bacchanals, nymphs, fauns, satyrs, putti, low-reliefs. Drawing primarily from Pagan Antiquity, Clodion created light-hearted terracotta sculptures that epitomized the Rococo style. He created elegant and desirable female figures in coquettish or mannered poses, not seldom rather seductive  He ran his successful business during about fifty years, until it was ruined by the French Revolution. This Clodion style wasn’t appreciated anymore and he didn’t have clients anymore in Paris. In 1795 he therefore moved to Nancy where he was involved in the interior decoration of private mansions and the creation of models for the porcelain factory Niderviller until he returned to Paris in 1771. Late in his life, when Neoclassial works were more popular, Clodion adjusted his style and worked on major public monuments in Paris. Fact is that he turned out to be less successful in this kind of large work than in his oeuvre of small dimensions.

Clodion was related to a family of sculptors in Lorraine, the Adam family. He was the son of Thomas Michel and Anna Adam, a daughter of sculptor Jacob-Sigisbert Adam and was one of the most important representatives of 18th century German sculpture. In 1781 he became by his marriage the son-in-law of sculptor Augustin Pajou (1730-1809). Clodion trained in Paris in the studios of his uncle Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759) and after he died of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1717-1784), the most successful sculptor of the time. Upon winning the Prix de Rome in 1759, he entered the École des élèves protégées and moved in December 1762 to Rome, sharing a studio with Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) and studying Antique, Renaissance, and Baroque sculpture. Among his clients were for example Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796) unsuccessfully attempted to bring him to her court and the duke de La Rochefocauld. He created high quality terracottas which were very successful. In 1771 Clodion returned to Paris, where he continued to produce mostly in terracotta. He rarely exhibited at the Salon de Paris and he didn’t apply for orders. In 1773 he became Agrée de l’Académie. In 1774 he divorced and he had a natural daughter who left her father following her lover, the sculptor Marin.

End of the 19th century

Bronze on the authentic wooden base

H. asymmetrical base and sculpture 41 cm; Base: W. 15,50 cm, D. 12 cm

Museums: Aux, Châlons-sur-Marne, Cherbourg, Dieppe, Montpellier, Nantes, Orléans, Paris, La Rochelle, Rodez, Semur-en-Auxois, Sèvres, Versailles, Berlin, Londres, Moscou.

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 3) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 719; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 7) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 110-111; Thirion, H. (1885), Les Adam et Clodion, Paris.

The sculptures were probably part of a confessional. Examples of 17th century confession boxes show in the central part two sculptures of young men or angels and on their left and right side the sculpture of a saint. The young men's attributes and sometimes their 'body language' (head, arms, hands) had a symbolic meaning. In this specific case the arms and hands are missing and therefore the symbolic meaning cannot be revealed. Examples of typical symbols and body language could be: a palm branch and the hand pointing at the chest as a symbol for the martyr, a heart standing for love, a crucifix for faith, a sand glass for transitoriness, etc.

Provenance: possibly Antwerp, Bruges or Brussels

Provenance: under study by Mr Raymond Sirjacobs of the Archives and Library of the Saint-Paul's church in Antwerp

Sculpture H. ca. 170 cm , base H. 17 cm, W. 41.50 cm, D. 41.50 cm