Pierre-Jules Mêne

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Pierre-Jules Mêne
VACHE FLAMANDE ET SON VEAU NO 2
signed P. J. MENE
bronze, black patina, raised on a grey granite base
overall height 9 1/2 in.
24 cm

Provenance

Bequest of Arthur Rubloff, 1988

Literature

Michel Poletti & Alain Richarme, Pierre Jules Mêne: Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2007, PA 18, p. 148

Catalogue Note

The present model was initially part of a group of five sculptures exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1845 under the number 2143. The original wax model is now in the permanent collection of the musée du Louvre, a gift of the sculptors Georges et Henri Cain in 1927.

The son of a metal turner, Pierre Jules Mêne began his career working with his father, from whom he learned the skills of casting and chasing bronze. Married at 22, Mêne turned his hand to making models for porcelain and small commercial sculptures to support his family. Under the guidance of the sculptor Rene Compaire, Mêne began to take an interest in animal subjects and spent his days sketching animals in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. He began to exhibit his well-achieved subjects at the Paris Salon in 1838 just as the vogue for les animaliers took off. A contemporary of Barye, his models were immensely successful. Whilst his oeuvre retains a hint of the Romanticism of the period, it contrasts with that of Barye, as Mêne focused on creating models directly from nature with a keen observation of animal type and behavior.