Early 20th Century Figurative Sculptures

JUAN CLARÁ AYATS Spanish, 1878 - 1958 A GIRL SEATED ON A STOOL TYING HER SHOE signed "Juan Clara" and stamped A.G. Paris (on the stool ) bronze figure 6-3/8 x 3 x 4 inches (16 X 7.5 X 10 cm.) PROVENANCE Private Collector, France Gilded bronze sculpture of Art Nouveau style, depicting a little girl sitting on a sidewalk tying her shoe. The plasticity that Juan Clará achieves with the bronze when shaping this beautiful little sculpture is wonderful. We notice the effort that the little girl is making to put on her shoe, her gestures and attitudes which moves us and attracts us towards her. Juan Clará Ayats. Olot (Gerona), 6.XII.1875 - Paris (France), II.1958. Sculptor Student of José Berga at the Olot School of Fine Arts, developed his training in France, first at the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse, in 1896, and from 1901 in Paris. At this stage he lived with his younger brother, José Clará...

JUAN CLARÁ AYATS Spanish, 1878 - 1958 A GIRL BUST signed "Juan Clara" and Buenos Aires stamp mark (on the back ) bronze figure 6-3/8 x 4-1/8 x 4-1/8 inches (16 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm.) 8 x 4-1/8 x 4-1/8 inches (20 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm.) base included PROVENANCE Private Spanish Collector Art Noveau bronze...

Giovanni Nicolini (Palermo 1872 - Rome 1956), Dreams Bronze sculpture 63 x 35 x 35 cm signed and located Rome on the back; in the wooden base is a ...

Combat: Indian, Horse and Buffalo: Arthur Putnam (September 6, 1873 – May 27, 1930) was an American sculptor and animalier who was recognized for his bronze sculptures of wild animals. Some of his artworks are public monuments. He was a well-known figure, both statewide and nationally, during the time he lived in California. Putnam was regarded as an artistic genius in San Francisco and his life was chronicled in the San Francisco and East Bay newspapers. He won a gold medal at the 1915 San Francisco...

Signed and stamped “Cire Perdue, Bisceglia F-es, Paris” Biography Paul Landowski was a French monument sculptor who was Polish. His parents were Polish refugees. He created over 35 monumental sculptures in the city of Paris. Landowski is known for the 1931 Christ the Redeemer...

Carl Kauba "Going into Battle" c. 1920s Bronze with Brown Patina Signed approx 10 x 10 x 4 (including wooden base) This Austrian sculptor was born in Vienna in 1865. His teachers were Karl Waschmann (1848-1905), known for his ivory sculptures and portrait plaquettes of contemporary celebrities, and Stefan Schwartz (1851-1924), who exhibited in Paris, including the Exposition Universelle of 1900 where he won a gold medal. Kauba's intricate bronzes, imported to the United States between 1895 and 1912, were cast at the Roman Bronze Works. Kauba was part of the nineteenth-century tradition of polychrome bronze sculpture. There were several types of patinas on a single statue: he could render the color of buckskin, variously tinted shirts, blankets, feathers, as well as beaded moccasins. Reportedly, Kauba came to America around 1886. Inspired by the Western tales of German author Karl May, he traveled to the West and made sketches and models. Critics, however, pointed out inaccuracies of costume and other details. For instance, the guns that his "mid-nineteenth-century" figures use are models produced after 1898. Apparently he did all of his works back in Vienna. Besides the variety of color, Kauba's bronzes show a great range of textures and his style is highly naturalistic. The sculptor loved ornament, some of which he rendered with coiled wire for reins, rope and feathers in headdresses. He successfully rendered figures in motion and often executed compositions with more than one figure. Berman (1974) illustrates non-Western subjects by Kaula, such as the pendants Where? and There (ca. 1910), a seated Scottish couple, impressive in the expressions and the details on patterned fabrics of both sitters. Another genre piece is Buster Brown...

Carl Kauba (1865-1922) "Native American in Canoe" Polychrome Bronze Signed approx 5.5 x 10 x 2.75 inches This Austrian sculptor was born in Vienna in 1865. His teachers were Karl Waschmann (1848-1905), known for his ivory sculptures and portrait plaquettes of contemporary celebrities, and Stefan Schwartz (1851-1924), who exhibited in Paris, including the Exposition Universelle of 1900 where he won a gold medal. Kauba's intricate bronzes, imported to the United States between 1895 and 1912, were cast at the Roman Bronze Works. Kauba was part of the nineteenth-century tradition of polychrome bronze sculpture. There were several types of patinas on a single statue: he could render the color of buckskin, variously tinted shirts, blankets, feathers, as well as beaded moccasins. Reportedly, Kauba came to America around 1886. Inspired by the Western tales of German author Karl May, he traveled to the West and made sketches and models. Critics, however, pointed out inaccuracies of costume and other details. For instance, the guns that his "mid-nineteenth-century" figures use are models produced after 1898. Apparently he did all of his works back in Vienna. Besides the variety of color, Kauba's bronzes show a great range of textures and his style is highly naturalistic. The sculptor loved ornament, some of which he rendered with coiled wire for reins, rope and feathers in headdresses. He successfully rendered figures in motion and often executed compositions with more than one figure. Berman (1974) illustrates non-Western subjects by Kaula, such as the pendants Where? and There (ca. 1910), a seated Scottish couple, impressive in the expressions and the details on patterned fabrics of both sitters. Another genre piece is Buster Brown...

"La Cothurne" 1901 Gilt Bronze Approx 21.5" High (to raised hand) Signed and Dated Foundry Mark "Susse Freres" Originally modeled in white biscuit porcelain this Greek dancer is a from a set of eight created for a dining table. They were immediately successful when they were exhibited in the Sevres pavilion at the 1900 Exhibition. Individual figures could be ordered and "La Cothurne" proved the most popular. Their success led to the firm of Susse buying the right to cast versions in metal. Agathon Leonard (1841-1923) is one of the well-known French Art Nouveau sculptors. Born in Lille in 1841, he first studied there before moving to Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Eugene Delaplanche. He gained recognition at the annual Expositiones Universelles, winning a Silver Medal there in 1889 and gold in 1900. His most important piece, Jeu L'echarpe, was the best known series of Sevres production at the turn of the century and sold out at the 1900 Expo in Paris and later was given as a gift by the French Gov't to Nicholas II at the Hermitage. His bronzes were cast at the Susse Freres Editeurs Foundry. He worked also in marble, quartz and ivory. He also produced Art Nouveau medallions...

Nuska, Portrait of a Girl, bronze portrait, 1924, unique Isamu Noguchi (Japanese American 1904 - 1988); "Nuska, The Deaf Girl"; cire perdu cast bronze with complex dark patina on bronze base; 15 x lOx 8 inches; base 4.5 x 5.75 x 5,75 inches; signature quilled under and at back - "Isamu"; foundry stamp quilled in wax at the back - "Roman Bronze Works N.Y." Excellent condition. "Nuska, The Deaf Girl" is included in the Catalogue Raisonne of Noguchi's sculpture by Nancy Grove and Dianne Botnick (Garland, 1980) as Number 21. It is currently listed in the digital catalogue being assembled by the Isamu Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York as Number 10. This is apparently a unique casting, not part of an edition. This is an apparently early, cire perdu bronze cast by Roman Bronze Works, probably when the foundry was located in the Louis Comfort Tiffany red...

Presenting an early hand hammered copper sculpture, "Satyr", by Dutch artist Max Zeitz. "Satyr", is an original, very early (1910) hand h...