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Cécile Raynal
Cow by Cécile Raynal - Animal smoke-fired stoneware sculpture, fable, clay

2025

$9,963.71
£7,376.66
€8,280
CA$13,795.46
A$15,061.33
CHF 7,896.04
MX$182,925.71
NOK 98,608.70
SEK 93,112.91
DKK 63,037.41

About the Item

Cow is a unique smoke-fired stoneware, resin, plaster and clay sculpture by French contemporary artist Cécile Raynal, dimensions are 86 × 52 × 60 cm (33.8 × 20.4 × 23.6 in). This sculpture is unique and comes with an authenticity certificate. This artwork depicts a cow sitting on its hind legs, appearing attentive to an unseen element. The cow is very expressive and lively, conveyed through the surface treatment that creates plays of light. Between dark grey and ochre, the colors enhance the vibrant aspect of the animal. This piece is part of the sculptural installation Chœur de bêtes (Choir of Beasts), a work that brings together eleven animals surrounding a cephalophorous figure. Similar in size, the animals break from natural scale and often assume surreal, exaggerated postures that heighten the mystery of the scene. Describing the installation, the artist writes: “Hybrid beasts and creatures, peoples, mass culture: wolf, hare, fox, raccoon, goat, donkey, crow, feline, badger, world-tree, birder. So many motifs, subjects, metaphorical presences. […] They embody other spirits, other imaginations, other ways of seeing, moving, and being moved. The peoples of the beasts suffer us, lament us — from always, from everywhere, we fabulate them. They represent us, they mirror us. […] So I model great silences between man and beast, imagining possible alliances. The future exists only in alliance — in a shared space, a terrestrial and spiritual heart.” Chœur de bêtes, a long-term project by Cécile Raynal, was recently exhibited in her solo show À la table des Dames (At the Ladies’ Table), held at the Montivilliers Abbey in Normandy (2025). Presented in this historic space — once home to women, nuns, and abbesses — the installation dialogues with a broader body of work that pairs female portraits with animal forms. Raynal’s sculptures are not made to charm; at times, they even unsettle. Raw and unpolished, they carry the traces of their making — shaped through matter, shaped through ordeal — and yet they rise, animated. They evoke a world where the animal, feminine, instinctive, or defiant is not repressed but embraced as a vital, animating force. The exhibition at the restored Abbey traces fifteen years of Raynal’s distinctive artistic journey. Dividing her time between her studio in Normandy and residencies in marginal places — prisons, hospitals, convents — she creates clay portraits inspired by encounters with those she meets in these settings. Back in the studio, she deepens this process by drawing from a wide array of tales, myths, and literary sources, giving life to sculptures of animals and hybrid beings — part human, part beast. Through these creatures, Raynal invites viewers to explore a shared language, revealing the subtle interplay between the human and the animal worlds.
  • Creator:
    Cécile Raynal (1966, French)
  • Creation Year:
    2025
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 33.86 in (86 cm)Width: 20.48 in (52 cm)Depth: 23.63 in (60 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Paris, FR
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU803116742922

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