Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Aimé-Jules Dalou
Hay Picker

circa 1890

About the Item

This Peasant resting is a subject that is included in the famous suite commonly called "little workers" by Jules Dalou (1838-1902) Bronze with nuanced dark brown patina cast by Susse Frères - stamped with the founder's seal France created around 1890 and cast after his death height 12,5 cm A similar model reproduced inJules Dalou, le sculpteur de la République, Exhibition held at the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 2013, page 288, n°220. Biography : Aimé-Jules Dalou, said Jules Dalou (1838-1902) was a French sculptor, born from Protestants glovers craftsmen who raised in secularism and love of the Republic. Jules Dalou was very young talented for modeling and drawing, which earned him the attention of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, who made him entered in 1852 in the Little School, the future National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. In 1854, he was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Paris, where he studied painting in the workshop of Abel de Pujol and sculpture in the workshop of Francisque Duret. He began to earn his living by working for decorators, and began his friendship with Auguste Rodin. Dalou then produced decorative sculptures for buildings on major Parisian avenues, such as the Hotel de la Paiva, on the Champs-Elysees Avenue. He presented but failed four times to Rome prize competition, but exhibited at the 1869 Salon his "Daphnis and Chloe" and the "Embroiderer" at the Salon of 1870, two pieces acquired by the French state. Dalou had one child, Georgette, a girl born with a mental handicap. This is to ensure funding for her daughter's life accommodation in the Orphanage of Arts, that Dalou bequeathed the funds from his workshop to this institution. After the bloody week of May 1871 Dalou, his wife and their daughter were threatened as Communards, forced into exile and requested asylum. They then joined England and were greeted by his former fellows of the Little School, the painter Alphonse Legros. With Legros, much introduced in the City, he made a serie of terracotta statuettes inspired by boulonnaise peasants or intimate subjects (readers, lullabies), and portraits of the English aristocracy. He became professor for modeling at the National Art Training School, his influence was decisive for many British sculptors. He received orders for a public fountain in marble titled "Charity" (1877) near the Royal Exchange in London, and a monument dedicated to Queen Victoria's grandchildren located in the private chapel of Frogmore at Windsor Castle. In May 1874, the Paris War Council condemned him in absentia to hard labor for life. Having refused to beg for mercy, Dalou was only in May 1879 being granted amnesty and his family finally returned from exile. His group "The Triumph of the Republic", originally planned for the Place de la Republique in Paris, was finally erected on the Place du Trône, renamed Place de La Nation in 1880. Dalou devoted twenty years to the realization of this monument. The years 1881 and 1882 were difficult, but the 1883 Salon finally revealed him to the French public. He exhibited his two high reliefs: "The Brotherhood of Peoples" and "Mirabeau answering Dreux-Brézé", for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Fleeing the world and living in family, Dalou engaged in considerable work and many orders both private and public. For the Universal Exhibition of 1889, was inaugurated on the Place de la Nation the plaster of "The Triumph of the Republic" commissioned by the city of Paris in 1879. Although the bronze version of the group was inaugurated in 1899, this work won the grand prize for sculpture in the exhibition. Dalou left the French Society of Artists in 1890 to expose at the National Society of Fine Arts, of which he was a founding member with Ernest Meissonier, Auguste Rodin and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1883, and promoted to officer by President Carnot in 1889, he was elevated to the rank of Commander of the same order in 1899 by President Loubet at the inauguration of the monument of "The Triumph of the Republic". Dalou had no time to complete his last great project, a monument dedicated to workers, the idea came to him in 1889 after the first opening of "TheTriumph of the Republic". The formality of the ceremony and military parades held the people away from the official event. Dalou was disappointed. True to its republican ideals, he had hoped that this inauguration was an opportunity of great popular democratic party (as it was at the inauguration of the bronze in 1899). His idea was then to pay tribute to the world of workers, craftsmen and peasants with this work being the central subject. At the end of his career Dalou described the project as follows: "I think I have finally found the monument to the workers that I seek since 1889. Sober, without molding or ornament, I wish it'd be severe and imposing. Will I execute it? There is the question. I am old and my health is so weak." The numerous sketches of the monument found in his studio after his death are now preserved in the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris. The statue of the Great Peasant (around 1897 to 1902, Paris, Musée d'Orsay) prefigures the characters he planned to place in the sixteen niches surrounding the column, a monument of 32 meters high.
  • Creator:
    Aimé-Jules Dalou (1838 - 1902, French)
  • Creation Year:
    circa 1890
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 4.93 in (12.5 cm)Width: 3.55 in (9 cm)Depth: 2.56 in (6.5 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    PARIS, FR
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: N.54831stDibs: LU2514212584782

More From This Seller

View All
Half-blood Horse, head raised
By Antoine-Louis Barye
Located in PARIS, FR
Half-blood Horse, head raised by Antoine-Louis BARYE (1796-1875) A bronze sculpture with a dark brown patina Signed on the base " Barye " Cast by " F. Barbedienne fondeur " (with th...
Category

Late 19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Centaur abducting a woman
By Aimé-Jules Dalou
Located in PARIS, FR
Centaur abducting a woman by Aimé-Jules DALOU (1838-1902) A bronze group sculpture with a dark brown patina Signed on the base "Dalou" Cast by "A.A. Hébrard" (with the foundry sta...
Category

Late 19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Lady with caskets
Located in PARIS, FR
Lady with caskets by Léo LAPORTE-BLAIRSY (1865-1923) Bronze a nuanced brown patina signed on the side of the base "Léo Laporte-Blairsy" old cast Stamped with a number "60765 / 6" F...
Category

Early 20th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Standing Bull, head bowed
By Isidore Jules Bonheur
Located in PARIS, FR
Standing Bull, head bowed by Isidore BONHEUR (1827-1901) A bronze sculpture with a nuanced dark brown patina Signed on the base " I. Bonheur " A period cast by " Peyrol " (with the...
Category

Late 19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Turkish Horse
By Antoine-Louis Barye
Located in PARIS, FR
Turkish Horse by Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875) "Cheval turc, antérieur gauche levé, terrasse carrée" Bronze sculpture with a nuanced dark brown patina Signed " Barye " on the base...
Category

Late 19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

A seated Couple
Located in PARIS, FR
A seated Couple by Louis-Eugene DEJEAN (1872-1953) A rare bronze group with a nuanced dark brown patina signed "Louis Dejean" cast by "Alexis Rudier fondeur" (with a barely legible...
Category

Early 1900s French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

You May Also Like

Unknown woman
Located in Täby, SE
Inspired by the head of Apollo by Antoine Bourdelle. A woman with strong firm but still vulnerable expresson.
Category

1980s French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Unknown woman
$3,439 Sale Price
20% Off
Antique 19th Century French Bonze Animalier Brown Bear Statue Sculpture Paris
By Antoine-Louis Barye
Located in Portland, OR
A good antique bronze sculpture of a brown bear by the celebrated French Animalier sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye, circa 1870. The bronze depicts a brown bear in a dynamic pose, head h...
Category

1860s French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

Antique Silvered Bronze Rooster, France circa 19th Century
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Antique Silvered Bronze Rooster France, circa 1900 10 1/4 x 9 1/2 (H x D) inches A very fine and lively bronze statuette of a preening Rooster. Nicely cast and well-carved and in ex...
Category

19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Silver, Bronze

Antique Bronze Dog Portrait of a Cavalier King Charles "Thigley" circa 1905
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Antique Bronze Dog Portrait of a Cavalier King Charles "Thigley" French School (possibly Franck Burty Haviland) Lost wax bronze casting Circa 1910 5 7/8 x 9 x 3 1/4 A sophisticated bronze casting of a Cavalier King Charles spaniel made in lost wax casting (cire perdue) from the beginning of the 20th century by Valsuani Foundry. This an unusual bronze approached in its aesthetic that’s reminiscent of the work of great animal sculptors of the second half of the 19th century except in this presentation which is more avant-garde for the time with a much looser, more impressionistic execution. The patina is a superb bronze color, brown and slightly greenish, going in places towards a more antique green. The attitude of the dog is extremely well and sensitively rendered with the placement of material unlike the renderings of a bronze by Barye...
Category

Early 1900s French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

A 19th century French animalier bronze of a greyhound
By Joseph Francois Victor Chemin
Located in Bath, Somerset
A late 19th century bronze figure of a greyhound, his front leg raised and head turned backwards as he grooms his coat. A finely detailed figure with a dark brown patina, mounted on ...
Category

Late 19th Century French School Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Female torso
Located in Täby, SE
This female torso represents the young woman's strength and vulnerability. It´s was conceived in the 70ths and is signed with the artists initials on a thumbprint. Gunnar Knut Nilsson, born 1904 in Karlskrona, died 1995 in Versailles in France, was a Swedish sculptor. Gunnar Nilsson studied watercolor painting and modeling at the Technical Vocational School in Karlskrona in 1918-19 and on his own in addition to working as a clerk at Finspångs Metallwerk. His debut exhibition was in Finspång in 1927. With the help of a local fundraiser, and after the encouragement of Carl Eldh, he traveled to Paris in 1928 to study sculpture for, among others, Charles Despiau and Paul Niclausse. In Paris he socialized with Bror Hjorth, whose former studio he also rented, Carl Frisendahl and Alberto Giacometti. He came to belong to "Le groupe des Neuf'' with Paul Cornet...
Category

1950s French School Nude Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Recently Viewed

View All