Jean-françois Gechter, Ent. From (1795-1844) Kneeling Angel

Jean-François-Théodore GECHTER, entourage of
(Paris, 1795 – Paris, 1844)
Kneeling angel
Bronze with brown patina
H: 25 cm
Around 1840

Jean-François-Théodore Gechter remains one of the great sculptors of his time whose work , marked by the bronze edition, has not yet been the subject of an exhaustive monograph. The artist received his training by attending with Barye the studio of the sculptor Bosio and that of the painter Gros. A regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon between 1824 and 1840, he received several official commissions during the reign of Louis-Philippe, including that of the bas-relief of the Battle of Austerlitz adorning the north face (Avenue de Wagram side) of the Arc de triumph of Paris, which earned him the Legion of Honor in 1837. Among the other monumental sculptures by Gechter still in place in Paris are also the figures of the Rhône and the Rhine on two of the gatehouses on the Place de la Concorde as well as a full-length Saint John Chrysostom at the Church of the Madeleine. But it is the abundant production of apartment bronzes which is the basis of Gechter's reputation today. Thanks to the improvement in sand casting techniques made during the 1830s, in particular by Honoré Gonon - also renowned for the quality of his lost wax castings -, as well as that of the reduction and enlargement techniques brought by the process of Achille Colas, the bronze sculptors were able to create complicated and virtuoso models, and publish them in multiple copies of different sizes. Sculptors then had the freedom to sell their models, to entrust their execution to founders of their choice or to cast them themselves in their own workshops. Gechter thus had his own from 1841 at 63, quai de Valmy. This meditating female winged figure refers to a subject that Gechter created around 1840 and had published in different sizes and patinas. The subject is unorthodox: should we see a heroic Mary Magdalene as a female angel? Christian iconography would further encourage us to recognize it as an allegory of the Faith. The position of the angel is not entirely similar and some details are not present, but the work of sculpture although attesting to another hand, is perhaps even finer and more flexible than the master himself .