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Miscellaneous :
London : Bronze statuette of Arabian horse and jockey, signed by Pierre-Jules Mêne
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Bronze statuette of Arabian horse and jockey, signed by Pierre-Jules Mêne - MS.1439
Origin: Paris, France
Circa: 19
th
Century AD
Dimensions:
16" (40.6cm) high
x 15" (38.1cm) wide
Collection: Decorative Arts
Medium: Bronze
Additional Information: C
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
Pierre-Jules Mêne, a French sculptor and
animalière, was born on 25 March 1810 in Paris,
France . He is considered one of the pioneers of
animal sculpture in the nineteenth-century.
As a teenager he worked for his father, a metal
turner and already by 1837 he was casting his
bronze sculptures in his own foundry.
Mêne produced a number of animal sculptures,
mainly of domestic animals including horses,
cows and bulls, sheep and goats which were very
much in vogue during the Second Empire.
Mêne specialized in small bronze figures which
explains why none of his works exist as public
statuary. His work was a popular success with
the bourgeois class and many editions of each
sculpture were made, often to decorate an
increasing number of private homes of the period.
Mêne enjoyed a long period of success and
celebrity and he is considered to have been the
lost-wax casting expert of his time.
Mêne died on 20 May 1879 in Paris and is
remembered as one of the finest, and certainly
the most prolific, animal sculptors of all time.
- (MS.1439)
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