Antonin Mercié (1845-1916) Orientalist Bronze "sabre Dancer"

Beautiful 19th century Orientalist sculpture in finely chiseled gilded bronze by Marius Jean Antonin MERCIÉ (1845-1916) signed on the terrace A.MERCIÉ & N°83 as well as countersigned and titled "Judith" on a cartouche located at the base of the green marble pedestal sea shell in a pyramidal shape - Dimensions: 50 cm high by a masterpiece by the worldly painter Jean-Léon GÉRÔME "Saber dance at a Pasha" in fact this elegant sculpture by Antonin Mercié is the result of a brilliant partnership favored in 1875 by the Maison Goupil, effectively in front of the success of Gérôme's painting, the art dealer Adolphe Goupil sought to recruit only the most famous artists of the time and Mercié appeared as an obvious choice following the amazement of a plaster model of his famous Gloria Victis exhibited at the Salon of 1874 (Bibliography: Gérald Ackerman Jean Léon Gérôme .ACR Editions 1986. Reproduced on page 381) Note the elegance of the model, the perfect balance of the composition, the sculpture is also distinguished by the studied naturalness of the pose, reconciling a sense of exoticism and realistic observation, it is one of the flagship of the orientalist creations of the sculptor Antonin MERCIÉ Arousing real fascination, the Orient nourished in the 19th century the dreams of a society that it took far from the mists of Europe and industrial machinery. Charming landscapes, colorful scenes, nobility of Arab horsemen, odalisques, magic of the desert... Instead of the traditional trip to Italy, artists now prefer to stay in North Africa and the Middle East. As Victor Hugo said “In the century of Louis XIV, we were Hellenist, now we are Orientalist” Jean-Léon Gérôme thus made numerous journeys to the eastern Mediterranean. As a realistic painter, he uses photography while drawing from life. On his return to France, he recreated an Orient which associated “exact images” with a literary vision, mixing reality and sensuality. Interested very early in the third dimension, he became involved with renowned sculptors from the “Toulousains” group, such as Antonin Mercié and Alexandre Falguière. The latter's student was Théodore Rivière, also from the pink city. A diligent student, he learned the art of statuary from “tableaux vivants”, models dressed in fabrics and used photography, sometimes casts from life. He also participates in the workshop's numerous commissions: memorial monuments, ornamental sculptures, busts and medallions. Like his master, Rivière, to whom Colette Dumas-Lavallard devoted a university monograph in 1997, represents patriotic and historical subjects, like Attila and the horde of the Huns, today at the La Piscine museum, in Roubaix. But his predilection is for orientalist themes, treated with great vigor.