The Mockers - Victor Prouve (1858-1943)

Rare bronze group with nuanced reddish brown patina
cast by the Union of Master Sculptors - with foundry seal

France
around 1903-1909
height 32cm
length 30 cm

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Biography :
Émile-Victor Prouvé, known as Victor Prouvé (1858-1943) was a French painter, sculptor and engraver. Son of an embroidery designer, Victor Prouvé studied at the Nancy municipal drawing school where his precocious talent was quickly recognized. He went on a city scholarship in 1877 to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was admitted to Alexandre Cabanel's studio. Prouvé first devoted himself to painting and drawing, then opened up on his own to other disciplines such as sculpture and engraving, but also to other materials such as wood and metal.

Victor Prouvé participated in Paris at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts in 1882 with his "Portrait of Madame Gallé and her daughters". His friendship with Émile Gallé, as well as with Louis Majorelle, gradually led him to take an interest in decorative arts and Art Nouveau. While living in Paris, he continued to maintain ties with his hometown. In particular, he designed decorations for glassware and furniture for Émile Gallé. These works of art were exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889 and that of 1900. Prouvé also worked for Eugène Vallin, Fernand Courteix, the Daum brothers and Albert Heymann. He practiced the art of bookbinding in the company of Camille Martin and bookbinder René Wiener.

Despite repeated failures in the Prix de Rome competition, Victor Prouvé received commissions for the Nancy Town Hall and in 1893 won a competition for a Carnot monument in Nancy. Two years later, he received the Legion of Honor, a sign of his official recognition and his success. In 1901, he left Paris and returned definitively to his native town, Nancy. He was part of the steering committee of the École de Nancy association; Prouvé became its second president on the death of Emile Gallé in 1904. From 1919 to 1940, he was director of the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy.