Bronze Leda and the Swan by Jean Jacques Feuchere.
(Not signed. Normal ! Please read biography below about this)
circa 1900 edition. Not common bronze !
About 8" x 5.5" x 9"
950euros.+sh.
CATALOGUE
NOTE
Following
its appearance in the Romantics
to Rodin
exhibition (1980), this model of Leda and the Swan has often been
attributed to James Pradier. In 1981, however, Henry Hawley identified
it as the work of Feuchère from a signed version in the Cleveland
Museum of Art.
RELATED LITERATURE
The Romantics to Rodin, no. 184. pp. 321-322;
Hawley, pp. 75-83
Biography
Jean-Jacques
Feuchère (1807-1852) was primarily a self-taught sculptor,
though he also trained under his ciseleur father Jacques-François.
He is better known for his large scale sculpture, though it is now
apparent that he produced a series of small and charming intimate
groups, probably for private patrons (cf. Hawley, op. cit.).
The Leda and the Swan is one such example, two others being An Amazon
Taming a Horse and the Venus and Cupid, both dating from the 1840's,
and an example of each being in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Unsigned
versions of the Leda are known, and for this reason the model has
been attributed to Pradier in the past. However, as Henry Hawley
has shown, and with the benefit of a version signed by Feuchère,
the group has been re-instated to its correct artist.
Like the
Venus and Cupid the present model reveals a sensuous conception
and cohesive composition, the present subject lending itself to
a more explicitly erotic interpretation. Feuchère has further
indicated the passion of Leda and her celestial seducer by details
such as her firmly shut eyes, parted lips and curled toes. A silvered
bronze version of this group was included in the exhibition The
Romantics to Rodin ( op. cit.), and it is clear by the high quality
of the chiselling and finish, that these were produced as a luxury
edition by the lost-wax process and probably under the supervision
of Feuchère. A great collector himself, Feuchère here
reveals his debt to the 18th century works of Clodion and his followers,
particularly in the choice of erotic subject matter, and in the
private collector's dimensions
