Bronze Animal Sculpture, Hippopotamus, Lost Wax By David Mesly Isidore 1918-2004

Old animal sculpture by the artist David Mesly (1918-2004) Bronze with black patina. Lost wax numbered I on IV Very beautiful hippopotamus with stylized lines. Titled by the artist "Isidore". Stamp of the founder Serralheiro. 35cm in length and 18cm in height. Very good condition, rare on the market. On April 22, 1918, Michel Robert was born in Paris. It was only from the 1990s that we would know him under the name David Mesly. Thanks to his father, Éloi Robert, who died in 1949 and himself a sculptor, young Michel was introduced to sculpture very early on. Indeed, Éloi was a student at the Regional School of Fine Arts in Rennes, as were Jean Boucher, Armel-Beaufils and Francis Renaud. The artists of this generation constituted a true “School of Rennes”. It was in his father's workshop that Michel Robert conducted his artistic studies from 1932 while haunting Montparnasse. At this time and until 1947, he exhibited his works at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, the Salon National des Beaux-Arts and the Salon des Indépendants. It is also exhibited at the Susse gallery, boulevard de la Madeleine. He was barely nineteen years old when his talent was rewarded with the gold medal for Le Pavillon de Bretagne at the 1937 International Salon. But this artist was also a man of action who did not disdain physical risk. In 1938, while Europe resounded with the screaming threats of the Führer, Michel Robert obtained his patent and his tourist aircraft pilot's license. Mobilized in 1939, he led the perilous life of a fighter pilot until 1941. On his return, in a pacified France and until 1952, he was, thanks to Armel-Beaufils himself, an inspector at the commission of the sites of Côtes d'Armor, a job as a site inspector in Finistère. Both joined forces to obtain the classification and protection of several natural sites along the Breton coasts. He can now devote himself again to artistic activities that highlight various facets of his talent. He knows how to be both a sculptor, a copyist for Historical Monuments and a designer for many artists. From 1945, as a copyist for Historical Monuments, he carried out the difficult work of copying the original work by direct carving in stone. He must therefore put himself in the place of the artist and in his time to be able to redo his gestures and find the original lines. He thus participates in more than five hundred projects throughout France (cathedrals, listed houses, churches, etc.) and in particular in Paris at the Louvre (statuary of the Second Empire). In 1993, he also restored the three stone archangels of the Notre-Dame Fountain that Léopold Kretz (1907-1990) had created in 1951 with his collaboration. The two men also created together a monument dedicated to Polish fighters for the defense and liberation of France, a symbolic work for Kretz, himself of Polish origin. After the war, Michel Robert was charged by the State with restoring part of Quimper's past: since 1908, the bronze statue of the Tour d'Auvergne, France's first grenadier, had stood in a square surrounded by trees. Requisitioned during the Second World War, it was melted down and transformed for military purposes. After the liberation, Michel Robert sculpted a replacement statue in granite, representing the same character. Subsequently, he used other materials: marble or precious wood. Its precise and simple lines and shapes are seductive. His bronzes are made from a stone sculpture which is made in direct carving. He brilliantly creates artistic nudes and works a lot on the animal world. He also carries out what is called fine-tuning work which consists of roughing and cutting a block of stone from a model. He knows how to put his talent at the service of his fellow sculptors for whom he develops some of the works. He notably worked with Volti (1915-1989), sculptor, designer and engraver who dedicated his work to celebrating women; Gabriel Coquelin (1907-1996) who was a long-time sculptor friend from Châtillon, initially a practitioner in the service of Quillinic, Poisson or Janniot and whose excellence in his profession allowed him to create his personal work. He also worked with Pajot, Greck and even Sophie Vary, the wife of the sculptor Botero. In February 1996, he was taken under contract at the Jean-Paul Villain gallery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was with the help of the gallery owner and after much research that he found his pseudonym: David Mesly. He then entrusted the gallery with world exclusivity for his sculpted work. In 1998, he exhibited at the Jean-Paul Villain gallery and in June 1999 at the Royal Gallery in Deauville. He died in Paris on February 1, 2004. In April 2004, the Jean-Paul Villain gallery paid tribute to David Mesly, “chameleon artist”, as he defined himself, one of the last directors, who devoted his life to the noblest material in the history of art: stone.