19th Century Bronze Group After Falconet

Brown patina bronze sculpture depicting Mercury (Hermes), god of commerce, thieves and messenger of the gods, seated on a rock tying his winged heel-piece. He is wearing a petasus, a winged hat, and his caduceus is resting on the ground. This sculpture, based on a model by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, shows a young god, naked and in motion. In a double-swivel position, he prepares to take off. The bronze, resting on a circular stepped base in griotte red marble, is signed on the terrace "Pigalle, 1745". The original of this sculpture was Pigalle's reception piece for the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on July 30, 1744, which entered the Louvre between 1848 and 1850. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle: The sculptor of the Enlightenment A great French sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was born in Paris in 1714. He worked on his art from an early age under the guidance of Robert Le Lorrain and later Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Convinced that his art was the meaning of his life, he returned to Italy in 1734 to perfect his technique. On his return, he began his "Mercure attachant sa talonnière" (1740), which enabled him to enter the Beaux-Arts. His reputation soared among the Parisian aristocracy. Mme de Pompadour took him under her wing, and commissions poured in. Juggling between the Baroque and the Classical, he painted portraits of Diderot and Voltaire, then created the famous funeral monuments...

Sculpture depicting "La Renommée" in bronze with brown patina by Julien Causse. This young woman draped, bare shoulders, blows in a reed-shaped horn. She seems to be rising from a ro...

A charming and wonderfully detailed French late 19th century bronze statue signed by Ralph Charles Peyre. The oval shaped bronze is of three playful cherubs, one is distracting the o...

A superb bronze model of a classical maiden and a putto entitled 'Le Merchand de Plaisir' the winged putto holding a posey vase, the maiden with a rose, on ...