Sleepy Head

2024

Signed/inscribed by the Artist on lower bronze base with an edition number. 4/20

Signed/inscribed by Artist on bronze base of the piece with an edition number. 4/50

Signed/inscribed by Artist on bronze base of the piece with an edition number. 10/30

Signed/inscribed by Artist on bronze base of the piece with an edition number. 3/9

A large, powerfully affecting sculpture of an eagle perched and preparing to take off. I have included a photo of a soda can in one shot to give you an idea of the scale of this scul...

This artwork "Chevre Allongee (Reclining Goat)" c. 1860, is bronze sculpture after renown French artist Antoine Louis Barye, 1796-1875. Signature is impressed in the bronze. The subject size is 4.25 x 7 x 3.35 inches, including marble base is 5.25 x 4 x 7.75 inches. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Antoine-Louis Barye lived his entire life in Paris and may never have left France. He was born in 1795 (a date revised in the 1990s from 1796 as a result of Martin Sonnabend's recalculation of the Revolutionary calendar). He is reported to have had minimal formal schooling even in reading, and to have acquired his extensive liberal-arts education on his own. His initial professional training was in metalwork: first with his father, a goldsmith from Lyons, then with a metal engraver in military equipment, and finally with Martin-Guillaume Biennais (active 1800-1832), then master goldsmith to Napoleon. After serving in the army from 1812 to 1814, Barye trained in the fine arts with sculptor François-Joseph Bosio (1768-1845) and painter Baron Gros (1771-1835). He then studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1818 to 1823. His miniature medallion, Milo of Crotona Devoured by a Lion, won an honorable mention in metal engraving in 1819, but he failed to win the Prix de Rome. He worked as a craftsman for the goldsmith Jacques-Henri Fauconnier (1779-1839) from 1823 to 1831 and made his Salon debut in 1827 with a selection of busts. Barye made his critical and public mark as a sculptor four years later, in the Salon of 1831, with groups representing predatory violence in the wild. His first government commission came soon after, precisely for such a subject. The Minister of the Interior purchased Barye's monumental plaster Lion (since called Lion Crushing a Serpent), shown in 1833, and had it cast in bronze by Honoré Gonon and shown in 1836, before placing it in the public Tuileries Gardens (now Musée du Louvre, Paris). In 1834 Barye was chosen for a project that was never executed, the colossal eagle as the crowning element of the triumphal arch at the Etoile. Around 1836 the government commissioned him to execute the emblematic animal decoration on the July Column at the place de la Bastille, inaugurated in 1840. He produced a monumental effigy of Saint Clotilde for the Church of the Madeleine, Paris, in the early 1840s. In 1846 the government commissioned a pendant Seated Lion for the Tuileries Lion Crushing a Serpent (1847, bronze, Portal, Pavillon de Flore, Palais du Louvre, Paris). During these same years the royal family began buying and commissioning small-scale works from Barye for their private collections. Around 1834, the duc d'Orléans commissioned a highly publicized surtout de table representing hunts of different regions and historical periods, possibly one of several tabletop projects that he ordered from Barye. The duc's sister Marie d'Orléans allegedly commissioned a lost-wax bronze of Barye's Charles VI Surprised in the Forest of Le Mans (location unknown; later serial variants), a model first shown in the Salon of 1833; his brother, the duc de Montpensier, apparently commissioned a pair of figurative...

This sculpture "The Foundry Worker" c.1925 is a bronze sculpture by German artist Albert Caasmann, 1886-1968. The signature is impressed in the bronze. The subject size is 11.15 x 8.15 x 3.15 inches, including marble base, the size is 13.15 x 8.15 x 5 inches. It is in excellent condition. about the artist: Albert Caasmann (2 June 1886 – 23 March 1968) was a German sculptor and porcelain artist. Caasmann designed toy figures for the Berlin toy company Lineol and from 1919 to 1952 was the lead designer and production manager for the company. He designed figurines for the porcelain companies Rosenthal AG and Volkstedt. Caasmann's work for the company Rosenthal are exhibited in the Porzellanikon's Rosenthal Museum. Lineol toy figures modeled by Caasmann are in the Historical Toy Museum in Freinsheim and the Toy museum in Havelland. Albert Caasmann was born on 2 June 1886 in Berlin, Germany. From 1909 to 1919, he worked as a freelancer for the Berlin toy company Lineol, founded by Oskar Wiederholz in 1906. After service as a soldier in the First World War, he became the leading designer and production manager of Lineol from 1919 to 1952. He designed over 600 figures for Lineol, including soldiers, animals, Indians, knights, fairy figures, and railroad figures. His toy figures were widely used in the region by children. Lineol ceased operations in 1965, and in 1985 the company Lineol Duscha has the trademark rights to Lineol. Lineol Duscha reproduces Lineol figures modeled before 1945. Lineol toy figures modeled by Caasmann are in the Historical Toy Museum in Freinsheim and the Toy museum in Havelland. Caasmann spent time in the Berlin Zoo, where he modeled his animal models. He made a model for a porcelain cheetah...

'Dancer Resting on Barre' is an elegant yet sensual sculpture. Landes' skill at conveying a sense of ease and confidence of the dancers is impeccable - this piece would be a fantastic addition to any collection. For Benson Landes, sculpture was most definitely a passion. His oeuvre of cast bronzes is populated with ‘off duty’ ballet dancers, rather wistful women, often caught in moments of solitary repose. Such an obvious appreciation of the grace and elegance of the female form was, no doubt, heightened by 25 years spent in the couture business, which Benson entered at the age of 14. The sculptor admitted that his time as an apprentice at his father’s clothing workroom and factory was given rather reluctantly, as he always harbored desires to become an artist. The young boy’s sense of responsibility was clearly equal to his creativity, though, as Benson knuckled down and learned the family trade. At the age of 18, however, a 2 year conscription to the RAF provided one of the few opportunities for Benson to experience artistic freedom. The possibilities of otherwise unobtainable materials such as pastels, paper, perspex and plaster of paris fuelled his ingenuity at the base’s well-stocked workshop. On completion of his RAF service, Benson briefly returned to the clothing factory now owned by his father. After his marriage to Ruth at 21, in an effort to provide for his new wife, Benson decided to set up his own business. Starting with a single sewing machine and tailoress, Benson and Ruth soon expanded the business. By the 1970s they employed over 50 staff and supplied to prestigious stores such as Dickens & Jones and Harrods. As the decade progressed, however, fashion turned towards less structured, more casual garments; a trend that prompted Benson to retire and spend time with his first love, sculpture. Buoyed by the liberty he enjoyed in his studio, Benson succeeded in selling some of his first pieces of sculpture, a collection of sporting trophies shown at the 1981 Open Golf Championship, to Garrards, the Crown Jewellers. This success quickly brought important contacts and new commissions. Benson always maintained that being able to work as a sculptor is a unique privilege. Usually in the company of a model, he often worked in the studio against the soothing background of classical music. Indeed, now eminently collectable, Benson’s work provided much comfort after the death of Ruth. Benson said that the things that mattered in life are those of beauty; he truly believed that romance and elegance are necessary shields to what he saw as the sometimes too hurried manner of life today. Benson sadly passed away in the autumn of 2013. Solid Bronze Figurative Ballet Sculpture...