François Pompon Sculptures

Polar Bear by François POMPON (1855-1933) An original edition sculpture made in white enameled porcelain biscuit. Stamped in the paste "S 1927 DN" (S for "Sèvres" – dated 1927 – DN...

Pheasant by François Pompon (1855-1933) Exceptional bronze with old gilded patina Cast by Valsuani Period cast France circa 1930 height 8,2 cm length 14,2 cm width 3,6 cm A similar model is represented in "Pompon, Catalog raisonné", Editions Gallimard, RMN, 1995, page 202, n°95B. Biography: François Pompon (1855-1933) is known for his animal sculptures whose innovative style is characterized by the simplification of shapes and polished surfaces. Pompon entered as an apprentice in the workshop of his father, Alban Pompon (1823-1907) who was a "compagnon du devoir" of the carpenter-cabinetmakers. Thanks to a scholarship obtained by the parish priest, he left in 1870 for Dijon where he became an apprentice stonemason with a marble worker. He attended evening classes at the School of Fine Arts in Dijon, first in architecture and engraving with Célestin Nanteuil, then in sculpture with François Dameron (1835-1900). After a short stint in the army in 1875, Pompon arrived in Paris where he became a marble worker in a funeral business near the Montparnasse cemetery. He attended evening classes at the Petite École, the future National School of Decorative Arts. His teachers were the sculptors Aimé Millet (1819-1891) and Pierre Louis Rouillard (1820-1881), also professor of anatomy, who showed him the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes. In 1890, François Pompon entered the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), where he worked as a practitioner at the marble depot, rue de l'Université. He quickly gained the master's confidence since he ran the workshop in 1893. His role then was to pass on the accounts, pay for the marbles and supervise the work. It is in this same workshop that he met Ernest Nivet and Camille Claudel. He worked for a long time as a practitioner for other sculptors such as Jean Dampt...