Maurice Journès, The Wheat Mower (1876)

MAURICE JOURNÈS (1831 Grenoble - 1905 Paris)
The Wheat Mower
Titled on the base: PYRÉNÉES / VALLÉE DE TARBES
1876
Terracotta
H. 39 cm
Signed and dated: Journès 1876
Some minor losses notably to the ends of the bundles of wheat

Maurice Journès, born in Grenoble in 1831, trained in sculpture in Grenoble and then in Paris. In 1863 he settled in Bagnères-de-Bigorre where he founded a Drawing and Modelling School. At this period Bagnères was in great need of skill and expertise in sculpture because it had become a marble boom town thanks to its local quarries. Journès's stay in Bagneres-de-Bigorre was very important for the art of the region because he singlehandedly formed a local school of sculptors. His charming Wheat Mower is perhaps his most intimately connected work to the High Pyrenees..