Lot 50: ALBERT HAGER (BELGIAN, 1857-1940) BOLTING HORSES, ONE FALLEN

Signed A. Hager Bronze, modulated mid-brown patination; on ornamental pedestal comprising circular rotating top of striated black marble, and an orange-brown double clustered column with similar black striated marble shaped table top and foot Group 50 cm (19 in) Base 125 cm (40 in) (3) Born in Frankfurt, a naturalized Belgian citizen, Hager was one of the few Belgian animalier sculptors. His best works show animals in states of extreme action, such as Elephant and Rhinocerus, Elephant Combat and the present fine cast of the dramatically modelled Bolting Horses. Hager also excelled in his representations of exotic animals, observed in the Antwerp Zoo, as well as in his various studies of dogs. He did not neglect, however, human subjects and exhibited his statue of Eve and a bust entitled Apprehension at the Antwerp Salon in 1920. His animalier statues were exhibited in Antwerp and Brussels and he participated in two foreign exhibitions of Belgian art in Switzerland (1926) and Denmark (1931). From 1839 to 1917 he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and later director, 1918-1922. Comparative literature: J. Van Lennep, La Sculpture Belge au 19eme Siecle, Brussels, 1990, vol. 2, pp434-35.