Lot 137: Paul Roussel French, 1867-1928 , Saint Georges terrassant le dragon (St George and the dragon) bronze, dark brown and green patina, on wood base

inscribed: À MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE DE L'INSTRVCTION PVBLIQUE ET DES BEAUX-ARTS ET À MADAME LEGVUES SOUVENIR DE LA SAINT-GEORGES A ROME. VILLA MEDICI. 1899 PAVL-ROUSSEL / G NISINI FUSE ROMA bronze, dark brown and green patina, on wood base

measurements note 46.5 by 78cm., 18¼ by 30¾in.

This extraordinary bronze is an impressive example of the combination of French artistry and Italian virtuoso casting. Although little is known of the sculptor his remarkable vision and talent is clearly demonstrated in this tour-de-force of inventive modelling and characterisation. Paul-Hipolyte-Réné Roussel won the Prix de Rome in 1895. He was born in Paris and studied sculpture under three masters of the age, Pierre-Jules Cavalier, Louis-Ernest Barrias and Félix Coutan. He exhibited works at the Paris Salon from the Villa Medici in both 1896 and 1898 and from 1901 to 1905 exhibited from an address in the rue Boissonade.

From the inscription it is evident that Roussel modelled his St George and the Dragon whilst at the French Academy's Villa Medici during his three year stay there. The inscription also relates the importance of the patron for whom the bronze was cast - the government's minister for the fine arts. For the casting Roussel turned to the renowned Roman foundry Nisini. The technique and style of Roman casting was distinctive, with exceptional care taken with the surface of the bronze. Like Roussel, the celebrated English sculptor Alfred Gilbert had turned to a Roman foundry, in his case Fonderia Nelli, to cast his Perseus in the early 1880s (see lot 133, Sotheby's sale 21υst November, 1995). The South African sculptor Anton van Wouw, also benefitted from the skill of the Nissini foundry during this period.

Roussel's eccentric and elongated vision of the combat between the saint and the dragon is played out over an expanse of lapping waves. Roussel relates the narrative in enthralling and amusing style, with St George and his horse slipping down the rocks to charge the waves, and the Princesses screaming simultaneously with her captor whose open mouth reveals a set of impossibly long, curled teeth. The whole is highly detailed and in this the artist is ably assisted by the foundry, which has transcribed even the artist's fingerprints from the clay. With a true sense of the modelling, the small balls of clay squashed into warts on the dragon's back, the strands of the princess's hair, blown across her captors wings and the minute buckles on the hero's armour have all survived the casting process.

RELATED LITERATURE
Société des artistes français, Catalogue Illustré du Salon, Paris, 1896 no. 3810 and 1898, no. 3829