Lot 117: LOUIS-ERNEST BARRIAS FRENCH, 1841-1905 BERNARD PALISSY, CERAMICIST, (1510-1589)

signed: EBarrias, inscribed: F. BARBEDIENNE, Fondeur Paris. and 413, with the RÉDUCTION MÉCANIQUE A. COLLAS BREVETE pastille; on underside inscribed in ink: 3572g vls.al and stamped E

bronze, dark brown patina

CATALOGUE NOTE

Bernard Palissy was the great French ceramicist of the 16th century. He was also something of a Renaissance man as his humanistic interests and writings included the subjects of natural history, religion, chemistry and philosophy. Palissy was a Protestant Hugenot and died in the Bastille where he was a prisoner.

Barrias's portrait of this seminal French character was exhibited at the Salon in bronze in 1881, and at the the Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1883. That bronze was bought by the city of Paris and erected in the square of Saint-Germain-de-Près. Three other bronze versions were erected in Boulogne, Villeneuve-sur-Lot and at the foot of the stairs in the Sèvre factory. The plaster model appeared at the Salon of 1880 and the Exposition centennale in 1900.

This is the third reduction of five produduced by Barbedienne, at 2/5 of the original size.

61cm., 24in.