Pierre-Jules Mêne Animaliere Antique 19c French Bronze English Fox Hunter and Two Hounds With Fox Hunting Horn Bronze Fine Art Sculpture
Very detailed antique bronze sculpture of a fox hunter and hounds, holding a fox hunting horn, standing in brush and a fallen tree. Sculpture is very detailed in the brush and leaves. The hounds are detailed in anatomy down to their hair. The fox hunter's belt buckle is of a little fox's head. Bronze sculpture has patina through-out. There is heavier patina around the mid arm/elbow on the hunter that goes through the bronze a bit; also on the fallen tree, near the hunter's feet, and all around in the ground area. Approximate measurements of the bronze sculpture alone, without the base, is 8.5"W X 3.75"L X 11.75"H. The M of the artist's signature is more pronounced on reverse, but is difficult to identify entire signature due to patina and wearing down of the bronze over the years. (Please review images) Therefore, bronze is listed after/in the manner of 19th century French bronze sculptor, Pierre-Jules Mêne; (1810-1879).
Pierre-Jules Mêne (25 March 1810 – 20 May 1879) was a French sculptor and animalière. He is considered one of the pioneers of animal sculpture in the nineteenth-century. He is considered one of the pioneers of animal sculpture in the nineteenth-century.
Mêne produced a number of animal sculptures, mainly of domestic animals including horses, cows and bulls, sheep and goats which were in vogue during the Second Empire. He was one of a school of French animalières which also included: Rosa Bonheur, Paul-Edouard Delabrierre, Pierre Louis Rouillard, Antoine-Louis Barye, his son-in-law Auguste Caïn, and François Pompon.
His work was first shown in London by Ernest Gambart, in 1849. Mêne specialized in small bronze figures which explains why none of his works exist as public statuary. His work was a popular success with the bourgeois class and many editions of each sculpture were made, often to decorate an increasing number of private homes of the period. The quality of these works is high, comparable to Barye's. Mêne enjoyed a longer period of success and celebrity than his contemporaries. He is considered to have been the lost-wax casting expert of his time. The lost-wax casting method is sometimes referred to as the cire perdue method.
Mêne died on 20 May 1879 in Paris, France. He is remembered as one of the finest, and certainly the most prolific, animalier sculptors of all time.
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