John Singer Sargent

How They Met Themselves By John Singer Sargent

Early 20th century

After François Girardon 1628-1715 French Pluto Abducting Proserpine Bronze This High Baroque period composition captures the famed narrative of Pluto and Proserpine from Roman mythology. The late 17th-century patinated bronze, created after François Girardon's marble composition, captures the very moment that Pluto seizes Proserpine. The anguished goddess reaches skyward, attempting to escape the god’s grasp while Pluto’s stoic face betrays his knowledge that his ploy will succeed. This pivotal moment in the mythological tale has captured the imagination of many art historical greats, from Bernini to Rubens. François Girardon’s version of the climax demonstrates incredible finesse and artistry, modeled expertly in bronze in the present work by a later sculptor. The statue brings a twist of intertwined bodies into a dynamic frenzy, paralleling the tension of the legendary story. In ancient Roman mythology, Proserpine, the beautiful daughter of Ceres — known as Persephone in Greek mythology — was picking flowers in the fields when she was suddenly abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom. Consumed with grief, her mother Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, scorches the earth, stopping the growth of grain and fruit. Jupiter attempts to intervene and secure Proserpine’s return to earth, negotiating a compromise with Pluto and the Fates that allows Proserpine to be released for part of the year before returning to Pluto’s underworld. Proserpine’s journey back and forth is an allegory for the changing seasons; when Prosperine is with her mother, the earth warms and provides bountiful harvests. Upon her annual return to the underworld, however, the earth once again becomes cold and barren. After returning to France after years of training in Rome, François Girardon quickly rose to become one of the greatest artists in France. He was elected a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1657 and would become Chancellor of the Royal Academy in 1695. The artist was approached frequently for royal commissions and Girardon’s Pluto was originally commissioned by Louis XIV for the gardens at his Palace of Versailles. It was one of four monumental marble groups intended to decorate the corners of Charles Le Brun’s never completed garden at the chateau, the Parterre d’Eau. Each group of three figures symbolized one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Pluto’s association with hell made him the apt...

Ivor Roberts-Jones 1916-1996 British Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Bronze This exceptional and iconic sculpture of Sir Winston Churchill is the original maquette for the renowne...

This remarkable early 17th-century Flemish bronze of Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra exudes classic Baroque grandeur and beauty. Flanders was one of the richest artistic and cultural...

This extraordinary Italian bronze embodies all of the hallmarks of the very best Florentine sculptures of the 17th century. The work is crafted in the Mannerist style of the late Ren...

Limited edition bronze sculpture by Polish artist Olga Prokop-Misniakiewicz. Artist signes her artworks by hand, using engraving tool. Edition of 5. Olga Prokop-Misniakiewicz likes t...

Limited edition bronze sculpture by Polish artist Olga Prokop-Misniakiewicz. Artist signes her artworks by hand, using engraving tool. Edition of 5. Olga Prokop-Misniakiewicz likes t...

A bronze sculpture after Paul Gauguin cast from a 1894 original wood carving. It is a wonderful example of his Primitivist style likely influenced by the Polynesian art of Easter Isl...

Large and heavy with magnificent patina. This is the large version of this piece. we cannot find any markings on it and it might be unique. Nicky Imber (Vienna, Austria, 1920 -1996) was a multidisciplinary Jewish artist best known for his sculptures on Jewish themes. Grand nephew of Naftali Herz Imber, author of the Israeli national anthem 'Hatikva'. After escaping the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, he pledged to dedicate his art to perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust. Among his more famous works are "The Hope" and "The Love of Torah". His work can be seen around the world, in Northern Israel, the United States, and the Venezuelan Museum of Natural History in Caracas. Nicky Imber was born in Vienna, Austria. During his studies at the Academy of Arts in Vienna, he drew anti-Nazi caricatures for Jewish student publications. After several thwarted attempts by the family to leave Vienna, in 1938, in the wake of the 'Anschluss', Imber was deported to Dachau. Witnessing the murders of family and friends, he plotted his escape. Using skills he had learned in art school, he made a face mask out of bread and sand, stole a Nazi soldier's uniform and walked out the front gate unnoticed. In 1940, he boarded a ship headed to Haifa. The ship's passengers were refused entry by the British mandatory authorities and imprisoned in a detention camp in Mauritius. In 1943, Imber worked out a deal with the authorities for his release by joining the British Army, serving as a war artist and a dental assistant in East Africa. After the war, he opened an art school in Nairobi, Kenya, and worked as a photographer and a safari guide. In 1949 to 1954, he lived in Venezuela, where he was contracted to do an East African Diorama series. The National Museum added an entire wing to display it. During this period he got married and had a daughter Raquel, who accompanied and assisted him. In 1959, Imber was commissioned to create sculptures and dioramas for the Haifa Prehistory Museum at Gan Ha-em in Haifa, Israel. In 1960 he returned to Venezuela to restaured the Phelps series of Dioramas for the Museum in Caracas. Between 1961 and 1971 he travelled extensively around Europe and after establishing an international name for himself, returned to the United States. In New York he became famous for his realistic oil paintings of portraits of Aga Khan, Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Sir Richard Burton...