Beschreibung:

Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912) A pair of exceptional and rare Val d'Osne foundry bronze figures of |Ecriture| and |Lecture
Both titled and inscribed Par Math Moreau, Fondu par le Val d~Osne, Paris, Fontes d~Art et Bronzes, 58 Blvd Voltaire, Val d~Osne, Paris mid brown patination, 152cms.; 60ins high An expert at portraying feminine grace, Mathurin Moreau sculpted figures, genre scenes, and allego­ries with an amiable and lighthearted realism. Pieces fitting this description dominated his extensive col­lection of bronze works, to which should be added a number of official commissions. The son and a student of Jean-Baptiste Moreau, Mathurin entered Paris~s Ecole des Beaux-Arts when he was nineteen years old, and studied there under the direction of Ramey and Dumont. He won the second prize of Rome in 1842 with Dtomède enlevant le palladium, and showed his work for the first time at the Salon In 1848, where he obtained a number of distinctions. Around 1850, he worked for the foundry of Val d~Osne, creating a number of models for statues destined to be cast in iron. In later years he became one of that foundry~s administrators. Founded by J.P.Andre in 1835 and based at the Val d~Osne, in the Haute-Marne, the company took over rival firms such as Barbezat and Ducel. The company exhibited at the Great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 as well as the Chicago Great Exhibition of 1893. These figures appear in the Societe Anonyme des Haut Fourneaux & Fonderies du Val d~Osne catalogue. See engraving. It is extremely rare to find pieces in bronze cast by the Val d~Osne foundry and the quality of casting and chiselling on the figures would suggest that these were probably made for an exhibition. Mathurin Moreau~s work includes some com­memorative monuments, tombs, a number of stat­ues and busts of personalities, and some ornamen­tal sculptures. He worked for the churches of Saint­Augustin and of the Trinité, for the Opera, the palais de Justice, the city hall, the Tuileries, the pavillion of Marsan at the Louvre, the gare du Nord, one of the fountains of the Théâtre Plaza (the statue of the Nymphefluviale), among others. His work also in­cludes a large quantity of statues, statuettes and groups in pleasant decorative themes, which were quite successful in their time. Mathurin Moreau sent quite a number of bronzes to the Salon: La Fee auxfleurs, a group of 140 cm high (1853), L ~Etude and Fileuse (1859), La Meditation (1861), Le Printemps (1865), Primavera (1872), Circe, a statuette (1873), Ismaël and Candeur, two busts (1875), Reverie, a statuette (1883), ProtectIon de l~enfance (1892), LesArmes d~Achille (1898), Le Tor­rent (1901), Marguerite d~AnJou, a group for the monument of Angers, and Gramme, a statue for the tomb of the Belgian electrician at Pèrc-Lachaise (1902), Le Rêve and Gloire au travail (1903), and lastly four statuettes: La Mutalite and Fleuve (1906), PremIere Fleur (1907), and La Source de Jouvence (1909).