Bronze Dachshund By Edouard-marcel Sandoz

Bronze dachshund with medal patina by Edouard-Marcel Sandoz, signed at the base and bearing the number 1552 on the underside. Height 7.3 cm, length 7.5 cm. Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1881, Edouard-Marcel Sandoz was born into the large Swiss family that gave its name to the pharmaceutical group. It was while visiting the Universal Exhibition of 1900 that he chose to follow his vocation as an artist and initially enrolled at the School of Industrial Arts in Geneva where he took ceramics lessons. He approaches D'Emile Gallé, who however refuses his entry into the family business in Nancy. The young artist settled in Paris in 1905 and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts to follow the academic teachings of Antonin Mercié and Jean-Antonin Injalbert. Initially a character sculptor, he turned resolutely towards animals from 1908, imagining a small owl in gray marble. This paves the way for him towards a more geometric stylization, far from his more traditional human figures. His curiosity and inventiveness often lead him to exploit the shapes of his models in materials such as porcelain, bronze, wood or hard stones. He is known for associating, often with a touch of humour, the beauty of the animal form with the utilitarian object, from candy boxes to planters. His hard stones - direct cuts - for which he creates new tools, reveal a perfect knowledge of the constraints of the materials to give life to his subjects, very often frogs or fish with shimmering shapes whose movements fascinate him. Always in search of a truth that is his own, he collects all kinds of animals in his studio: fennec foxes, cockatoos, even panthers. This passion for animal sculpture led him to give life to the Société Française des Animaliers in 1933. He was also a generous artist who financially helped his colleagues in need. He will often say: "In art, you have to love everything, nature, science, your neighbour...". He also devoted himself to painting flowers and landscapes of his native Switzerland before dying in 1971.