Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié 1845-1916 DAVID APRÈS LE COMBAT (DAVID AFTER THE BATTLE)

bronze, dark brown patina, signed A. MERCIE and inscribed F BARBEDIENNE. Fondeur. 

 

RELATED LITERATURE:
Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, French sculpture Vol II, 1999, pp. 196, 224 and Pierre Kjellberg, Bronzes of the 19th. Century, 1994, p. 490.
 

David Aprés Le Combat, also known as David Vainqueur, brought Mercié a Medal of the First Class, and the Croix de la Légion d' Honneur, making him the only artist to receive it while still a student. An version of this sculpture was commissionned by the French state and exhibited at the World Exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1878 and is now in the Musée d' Orsay in Paris. Many life size versions have been made; there is one today in the town of Toulouse, and another at Copenhagen University. Barbedienne cast the work in six sizes.