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Emmanuel Fremiet
A Fine Patinated Bronze Sporting Group
£55,000
A Fine Patinated Bronze Sporting Group, Entitled ‘Chevaux de Course et Jockeys’ (‘Two Racehorses and Jockeys’), By Emmanuel Frémiet (French, 1824...
Dimensions
Height: 47 cm (19 in)Width: 56 cm (23 in)
Depth: 23 cm (10 in)
Weight: 21 kg
PrintDescription
A Fine Patinated Bronze Sporting Group, Entitled ‘Chevaux de Course et Jockeys’ (‘Two Racehorses and Jockeys’), By Emmanuel Frémiet (French, 1824 –1910).
Signed ‘E. Fremiet’. Foundry signature ‘F. Barbedienne’.
France, Circa 1910.
‘Chevaux de course et jockeys’ was first exhibited at the Salon of 1885 and again at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. It was so well received that Frémiet also sent it for exhibition abroad – to Antwerp in 1885 and Copenhagen in 1888. It has been called “one of the finest models of this subject to be found in animalier sculpture”. (Horswell, op. cit., p. 185).
Writing in 1896 the art critic Jacques de Biez wrote: “Mr. Frémiet recently produced two studies of turf horses […], adding the thoroughbred to this artist’s series of horses. One is a group of jockeys in the saddle, and the other is a portrait of the stallion Barbarossa. These groups are more than mere decorative objects; they serve as historical documents. The historian has left his mark of broad-mindedness and keen observation. He has elevated his subjects to the level of the definitive type within their genre and species.” (Translated from Jacques de Biez, Un maître imagier : E. Frémiet, Paris, 1896 , p.71).
The bronze master-model is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (inv.no. 4188). This bronze is signed by the Barbedienne foundry who acquired the model in 1910 and between 1911-1912 cast an edition of twenty-two bronzes.
Exhibited:
The model,
Salon, Paris, 1885 (N° 3707).
Exposition Unverselle, Paris, 1889 (N° 1856).
Emmanuel Frémiet (French, 1824 –1910)
Emmanuel Frémiet, Photogrpahed in the 1870s. (Public Domain)
Emmanuel Frémiet was born in Paris on 15th December, 1824. He received his first drawing lessons from his aunt, Sophie Frémiet, who had married the renowned sculptor François Rude (1784 – 1855). In need of a living, the young Frémiet produced osteological drawings, made anatomical studies for the Musée d’Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière and even worked for a time as a painter in the morgue, retouching corpses for embalming. Rude warned him about the financial hardships entailed in pursuing an artistic career, but undaunted the young Frémiet devoted several years to studying in his uncle’s studio. Early in his career he became interested in animal sculpture, and devoted himself to the study of zoology.
He first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1843 with the plaster study of a gazelle (1843 n° 1449), and from then on, he rapidly became known as a master in animal sculpture and design. What is generally spoken of as his masterpiece, ‘Chien courant blessé’ (‘The Wounded Hound’) was purchased in 1851 by the musée du Luxembourg and is now the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (RF 177). Subsequently, he undertook a group of basset hounds, placed at the Palace of Compiègne, and began, at the request of Napoleon III, a series of fifty-five statuettes reproducing the various uniforms of the army. Later came his equestrian statues of Napoleon I in Grenoble and of Louis d’Orléans at the Château de Pierrefonds.
At the exposition of 1867 he was awarded a second medal but after the Franco-Prussian war, always a solitary character and living near Versailles, he became greatly discouraged. He considered retiring, if it were not for the need that he relied on his art as his single source of income. Fortunately, he returned to work and thereafter produced his most famous works, including ‘Joan of Arc’ for the Place de Rivoli (1874), ‘St. Michael Slaying the Dragon’ (1879) for top of the spire of Mont Saint-Michel Abbey; and ‘Gorilla carrying off a woman’ (1887). Frémiet made a good many equestrian statues. His work is scattered all over Paris, in galleries, public buildings, squares and private houses.
Frémiet, who shunned society and lived simply among his family, in time received every honour and reward. He earned a third-class medal in 1849, a second-class medal in 1851, a third-class medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, a second-class medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, and the Medal of Honor in 1887. He received an award at the Universal Exposition of 1889 and a Grand Prize at the Universal Exposition of 1900. Appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1860, he was promoted to Officer in 1878, Commander in 1896, and Grand Officer in 1900. He succeeded Antoine-Louis Barye as professor at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in 1875 and was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1892. He died in Paris, at the age of 86, at his home, 43 Boulevard Beauséjour, on the 10th September 1910. He was buried in the Passy Cemetery.
Literature:
C. Chevillot, Emmanuel Fremiet: La main et le multiple, Dijon, 1988.
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’Ecole française au dix-neuvième siècle. T. II. D-F., 1914., pp. 405-419.
Jacques de Biez, Un maître imagier : E. Frémiet, Paris, 1896, p.71.
J. Horswell, Bronze Sculpture of “Les Animaliers” Reference and Price Guide, Woodbridge, 1971, p.185.C. Chevillot, Emmanuel Fremiet: La main et le multiple, Dijon, 1988, S127, p. 95.
F. Rionnet, Les Bronzes Barbedienne, L’oeuvre d’une dynastie de fondeurs, Paris, 2015, p. 329, Cat. 828.
