Ducel Foundry after Pierre Loison, Young Girl with a Conch, mid-19th century
By J.J. Ducel, Pierre Loison 1
Located in SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE, FR
This statue, titled Young Girl with a Conch, was cast by the Ducel Foundry after a work by Pierre Loison in the mid-19th century. The sculptor Pierre Loison (or Loyson) (1816-1886) began his career as an apprentice to a clog maker. Noticed for his talent, he was able to study sculpture in the studio of David d’Angers and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He received numerous official commissions and exhibited in nearly every Salon from 1845 until 1886, the year of his death, as well as at the 1855 Universal Exhibition. The Ducel Foundry was founded in 1800 in Touraine. It was successively managed by three generations of the Ducel family: Jacques, Jean-Jacques, and Jacques-Gustave. The company had a store in Paris and gained recognition by participating in various international exhibitions held in the second half of the 19th century. It was purchased by the Val d’Osne Foundry in 1878. This sculpture depicts a young girl seated on a rock by the water’s edge. She may represent a naiad, a deity associated with rivers and springs. Her posture conveys movement, as if she is about to enter the water: her face and torso lean forward, she holds onto the rock with her left hand, and in her right hand, she grasps a conch shell, which could emit a jet of water. A drapery covers her waist, and both legs extend toward the water. The statue bears an inscription on the base indicating its origin: “JJ DUCEL...
Antique Mid-19th Century French Napoleon III Statues
Iron
