Emmanuel Frémiet

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Emmanuel Frémiet
CREDO
signed E. FREMIET and inscribed F. BARBEDIENNE. Fondeur and with the museum inventory number 176.1285
bronze, gilt-bronze, raised on a rouge de Belloc marble base
overall height 16 1/2 in.
42 cm

Provenance

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Max L. Calhoon, 1976

Literature

C. Chevillot, Emmanuel Fremiet 1824-1910. La main et le multiple, exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon-Quetigny, 1988, pp. 139-40, no. S 264

Catalogue Note

Emmanuel Frémiet's medieval knight, holding aloft a banner to profess his faith, can be identified as a self-portrait of the sculptor, evidenced by its comparison to Henri-Léon Greber's portrait statuette of the master illustrated Sotheby's London, April 16, 2000, p.70. This anecdote, in which Frémiet discusses the subject of Credo, can only further confirm this claim: "Un soir dans mon atelier, j'appris soudain, par une lettre d'un ami, qu'une de mes plus fervantes pières était exaucée: dans mon élan de reconnaissance, je me trouvai debout, la tête penchée, les bras en croix, et murmurant ma foi entière. Dans ce moment d'amour, j'ai fait mon Credo." The model dates to 1885 when a plaster master-model was exhibited at Antwerp. It was then cast in an edition that proved to be immensely popular, resulting in the sale of 112 examples in just two years and three months, a number only bettered by his celebrated model of Saint-Michel (Chevillot S.247.)