Elephants And Their Mahout - Bronze Sculpture By Albert Hager (1857 - 1940)

Albert Hager (1857 - 1940)
Elephants and their mahout
Bronze with brown patina on a marble base
H.: 43.5 cm; W.: 60.5 cm; D.: 21 cm
Signed “a. Hager” and dated “Novb 1923”

Born in Germany, then naturalized Belgian, Albert Hager was a student at the Academy of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels. He participated in the Triennial Salons and also exhibited at the Universal Exhibition, organized in Brussels in 1910. In 1893, he was appointed professor at the Academy which had trained him in sculpture, then became director of this same institution in 1918.

Elephants were one of the artist's favorite subjects. Perhaps he drew his inspiration from his observations at the Antwerp zoo or from short stories by Rudyard Kipling, like other artists of that time, such as Roger Godchaux.

Literature

– J.-C. Hachet, Dictionnaire illustré des sculpteurs animaliers & fondeurs de l’Antiquité à nos jours, Paris : Argusvalentines, volume I, 2005, p. 371.