After Pierre-Jules Mêne (French 1810-1879)
Horse and Fence
Bronze, signed lower left "P.J. Mene"
Size: 7.5” h x 10” w x 4” d
G20303
uno@langmann.com
604 736 8825 or 1 800 730 8825
One of the most prolific and successful sculptors of the animalier school, Pierre Jules Mêne was born in Paris in 1810. He was raised on the rue du Fauborg-Saint-Antoine, the hub of Parisian craftsmanship in a district filled with skilled workers and artisans. Mêne was taught the rudiments of sculpture and founding by his father, then developed his natural talent as an animal sculptor under Rene Compaire. He frequently spent his spare hours studying the anatomy of the animals at the Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes.
Mêne first exhibited at the Salon in 1838, the same year in which he established his own foundry, and thereafter he exhibited one or more models almost every year until his death in 1871, with entries accepted posthumously on his behalf until 1879. He specialized in small bronzes, often created in several editions, that were popular with the bourgeois class. Mêne took great care in his castings and often edited the pieces himself. As he became more successful, he issued catalogues of his work.
Mêne’s early work was influenced by the spirited, lifelike compositions of the French painter Carle Vernet, and by the highly expressive romanticism of the English painter Landseer. However, over the course of his career he developed his own style of naturalism, which eventually placed him among the most important and influential realists of his time. Although Barye may be considered the initiator of the animalier school, it is Mêne who surpassed all others in the portrayal of animals in the realist form. He sculpted directly from nature, and his subjects, unposed and very much alive, are captured in a fleeting moment, picturesque in every detail. Mêne’s animals are often individual portraits with ‘humanised’ personalities. Today Mêne is one of the names most associated with, and typical of, the animalier school as a whole. In his lifetime, Mêne was awarded four medals at the Salon and at major exhibitions, including two first class medals at the London Exhibitions of 1855 and 1861, and the Cross of the Legion d’Honneur in 1861. He is often considered to be the lost wax casting expert of his time.