'David Vainqueur de Goliath' a Bronze Figure by Antonin Mercié, circa 1880

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'David Vainqueur de Goliath' a Bronze Figure by Antonin Mercié, circa 1880

Name: 'David Vainqueur de Goliath' a Bronze Figure by Antonin Mercié, circa 1880
Brand: Antonin Mercie, Ferdinand Barbedienne
Rating: 5 (11 reviews)

Price:$12,255

$16,250.69List Price

About the Item

'David Vainqueur de Goliath' - A fine Patinated bronze figure by Antonin Mercié, cast Ferdinand Barbedienne. French, circa 1880. Rich brown patiantion with gold highlights, the base cast with a lozenge with the Hebrew for David and the base with a roundel for Réduction mécanique Collas. The figure depicts the Biblical story of young David's final triumph over Goliath and is one of the most recognisable and celebrated sculptures of the nineteenth century. Influenced by the works of Verrocchio and Donatello, the piece earned Mercié a first class medal as well as the rank of Chevalier de légion d'honneur at the Paris Salon of 1872. The life-size version of Mercié's David is in the permanent collection of the Museé D'Orsay (RF 186, LUX 74). Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié (1845- 1916) was born in Toulouse and studied at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris, under Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, He made his debut at the Salon in 1868 when he won the celebrated Grand Prix de Rome with the group 'Thesée vainqueur du Minotaure'. This entitled him to study in Rome, and whilst studying in Rome from 1869 to 1873, he already executed the models for his first two popular works, 'David' and 'Gloria Victis'. In 1870 whilst Mercié was still in Italy, the Prussians invaded France and he began, somewhat prematurely, modelling Gloria Victis to commemorate his country’s imminent victory. Unfortunately the victory never came and Mercié re-modelled his sculpture replacing the victorious soldier with one of defeat thereby transforming an allegory of ‘Glory to the Victors’ into one of ‘Glory to the Vanquished’. The model for the wounded soldier was reputably based on his friend and fellow sculptor Henri Regnault who was killed on the last day of the war. The full-size plaster model of Gloria Victis was exhibited at the Salon of 1874, winning the Medaille d'Honneur and critical acclaim. It was then purchased by the City of Paris for the sum of twelve thousand francs and cast in bronze by Victor Thiébaut for a further eight thousand francs. The original bronze is now placed in the central courtyard of the Paris Hôtel de Ville. The plaster version was re-exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, alongside bronze reductions of the group by Barbedienne. After Mercié completed the plaster model of his David in Rome, it was also sent to Paris and exhibited at the Salon of 1872, where it was a great success, winning a first class medal. A life-size bronze version of the work was then exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 and acquired by the Museé du Luxembourg. In 1873 Mercié was given the Cross of the Legion of Honour - an unprecedented award for a sculptor who was still a student at the French Academy in Rome. In 1882 he enjoyed further great success with a group ‘Quand Même’, replicas of which have been set up at Belfort and in the garden of the Tuileries, Mercié received many important commissions which included monuments to Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1895), erected in the Jardin de l'Infante in the Louvre, and Louis Faidherbe (1896) at Lille; a statue of Adolphe Thiers set up at St Germain-en-Laye; the monument to Paul Baudry at Père Lachaise; and that of Louis-Philippe and Queen Amélie for their tomb at Dreux (1885). His stone group of ‘Justice’ is at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. Further to this he also received many international commissions including three monuments in America namely - ‘Robert E. Lee' (1890) an equestrian bronze on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia; a collaboration with his former teacher Alexandre Falguière on the ‘Marquis de Lafayette’ (1891) in the District of Columbia and for the Francis Scott Key Monument, Baltimore, Maryland in (1911). Mercié was appointed Professor of Drawing and Sculpture at the École des Beaux Arts, and was elected a member of the Académie Française in 1891, after being awarded the biennial prize of the Institute of 800 in 1887. He was also one of the few sculptors to be elected to grand officer of the Légion d'Honneur, and in 1913 became the president of the Société des Artistes Français. As Harpers Magazine was to put it in an article of 1888, on modern French sculpture, Mercié's genius was characterised by an intensity of feeling and an unerring sentiment of beauty in form. ‘M. Mercié is a man who lives outside of contemporary life, reading neither books nor newspapers, taking no part in civic or patriotic business, frequenting but rarely the society of a few friends, and being, in fact, a sort of artistic hermit isolated in the studio. And yet M. Mercié at the opportune moment created that famous group Gloria Victis, which symbolized with thrilling intensity the moral state of patriotic France in 1874, vanquished, but conscious of heroic deeds and noble resolves, grateful to her fallen sons, and more glorious in her defeat than was the Teuton foe in his brutal victory. But how did M. Mercié conceive this group? Why did the clay assume this form? How came the sculptor to express so vividly the latent thought of a whole nation? The simple fact is that the clay which became ultimately the model of Gloria Victis assumed successively the forms of Samson and Delilah and Judith and Holofernes, but being satisfied with neither of these projects, M. Mercié transformed the clay into the group which is called Gloria Victis, and which was conceived and modelled in ten days.’ Bibliography Pierre Kjellberg, 'Les Bronzes du XIX Siecle, dictionnaire des sculpteurs', Edition de l'Amateur, (Paris) 1987, pps 488-491. Lami, Vol 3, p. 433; Romantics to Rodin, pp. 304-6. ‘Contemporary French Sculptors’: The Century, Volume 33, Issue 3, Jan 1887 ‘Modern French Sculpture’: Harper's new monthly magazine, Volume 76, Issue 452, January 1888. Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) was the inspiration and driving force behind one of the most important French art foundries. He pioneered the use of mounts and, more commonly, bronze sculpture including figures and animals. Barbedienne produced catalogues of bronze reproductions of Greek and Roman classical sculpture and experimented with champlevé and cloisonné enamels during the third quarter of the century. Barbedienne exhibited several pieces of furniture at the 1855 Paris Exhibition including an ormolu-mounted oak dressing table and an ormolu-mounted ebony veneered bookcase. Both pieces were executed in his favoured Renaissance Revival style for furniture. Furniture with mounts signed by Barbedienne is extremely rare. The Barbedienne foundry handled the casting of numerous national monuments and architectural schemes. Ferdinand Barbedienne himself also took an active part in the promotion of contemporary sculpture and became one of the founders for David d'Angers' medallions as well as much of Rude's sculpture. His signature varied from hand written capitals to stamp in capitals, usually 'F. Barbedienne, Fondeur' or 'BARBEDIENNE PARIS'. In 1839 Barbedienne collaborated with the inventor Achille Collas who had succeeded in enlarging and reducing works of art to arbitrary sizes by a simple mathematical calculation, allowing the accurate reduction of classical and contemporary marbles for the purpose of reproduction in bronze. In 1850 Barbedienne was commissioned to furnish the Paris town hall for which he was awarded with the médaille d'honneur at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1855. Bibliography: Barbedienne, Ferdinand. Catalogue des Bronzes d'art 1886. Fonderie d'art Français: Val d'Osne, Fonderie de Tusey, Antoine-Louis Barye, Fonderie Rudier, Charles Crozatier, Ferdinand Barbedienne' Livres Groupe, (Paris), 2010.

Creator:
Ferdinand Barbedienne (Manufacturer),Antonin Mercie (Sculptor)
Dimensions:
Height: 37.01 in (94 cm)Width: 18.51 in (47 cm)Depth: 13.39 in (34 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Bronze,Patinated
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
Late 19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1880
Condition:
Seller Location:
Brighton, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: B742431stDibs: LU1028013714821

Shop All Ferdinand Barbedienne

Ferdinand Barbedienne

Founded by one-time Parisian wallpaper dealer Ferdinand Barbedienne and engineer Achille Collas, one of the most revered foundries in 19th-century France began with the invention of a revolutionary 1830s-era device that could produce proportional reproductions — large or small — of sculptures. Collas’s machine, which yielded miniature likenesses of antiquities for the interiors of homes the world over, was pivotal to the success of the F. Barbedienne Foundry. The successful firm earned prestigious awards and critical acclaim and created exquisite bronze candleholders, clocks and lamps for a range of wealthy and prominent clients.

The duo first launched their company under the name Société Collas et Barbedienne, and early on, they optimized chemical processes for pigmenting and patinating their bronze statuettes. After Collas died in 1859, Barbedienne forged on alone, and the company’s name changed to simply F. Barbedienne.

Barbedienne employed more than 300 workers at that point, and the Maison created a range of furnishings and decorative objects that featured the integration of marble and ormolu accents. However, with the onset of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the foundry was forced to retrofit its molds, and the production of cannons replaced sculptures, furniture and vases.

When Ferdinand Barbedienne passed away in 1891, his nephew and heir, Gustave Leblanc, took over as president, changing the name to Leblanc-Barbedienne. Leblanc expanded production into Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, carrying on the company's legacy with monumental sculptures, and models and securing production rights for famous statues. Paul-Alexandre Dumas, an Art Nouveau maker and student of Louis Majorelle, succeeded Leblanc until the company's closing in 1952.

Barbedienne pieces had been exhibited regularly in the 19th century and were especially prevalent at Europe’s international expositions and world’s fairs, where they received numerous prizes. Today, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris holds dozens of Barbedienne works in its collection, including intricate mirrors, vases and cups created by Louis-Constant Sévin at the foundry. For more than two decades, Sévin created lamps, boxes and more at Maison Barbedienne. Working alongside award-winning chaser Désiré Attarge, Sévin designed Napoleon III-era works that greatly appealed to European nobility.

Materials

Bronze

Category

Antique Late 19th Century French Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Antique French Barbedienne Bronze Sculpture "Quand Même" by Antonin Mercié, 1884

$45,000

French 19th C Gilt and Patinated Bronze Group of Gloria Victis, by A. Mercie

By Antonin Mercie, F. Barbedienne Foundry

Located in New York, NY

An Incredible and Large Gilt and Patinated Bronze Group of Gloria Victis, a Winged Figure of Victory with a Fallen Warrior. This incredible bronze piece was cast after a model by Maarius-Jean-Antonin Mercié, This model is signed 'F. BARBEDIENNE FONDEUR PARIS' demonstrating that it was cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne's foundry, the best bronzier of the 19th century. The base is further signed 'A. Mercie' and stamped 'Réduction Mécanique' with an inscription of '659'. The figure is mounted on a Belgian noir marble base with various stepped edges. Gloria Victis is one the most well-known and important bronze casts of the 19th Century. The quality of this particular model is absolutely incredible and all the marking indicate that this particular piece is one of the finest produced by the Foundry. A student of Jouffroy and de Falguière at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié (1845-1916) won the Grand Prix de Rome at 23 years old with his work Thésée vainqueur du Minotaure. In 1872, he sent the plaster model of his work David vainqueur to the Salon, for which he won the first class medal. At the same time, he received La croix de la Légion d'honneur at the Villa Medici. His return to Paris, in 1874, issued in a long and brilliant career with numerous commissions, notably the monuments for Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie-Amélie for the Royal Chapel at Dreux (1886). By the age of 30 Mercié was already very well-known and his Gloria Victis received resounding success when it was exhibited at the Salon, in 1874 (in plaster) and in 1875 (in bronze). This work exalted the heroism and the patriotic sentiments aroused by the disasters of 1870. His predilection for patriotic subjects is shown in many of his works such as Quand même...

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