Bison Of The Western Prairies Of Iowa - Henri Trodoux Second Half Of The 19th Century

Dimensions Height: approx. 13 cm Terrace: 21.2 X 10.5 cm Weight: 1,784 grams Signature Signed intaglio on the motif, on the back of the terrace Material Bronze with a golden patina resting on an ovoid terrace.

Henri TRODOUX lived in Saint Petersburg at the time when Emperor Alexander II (1855 - 1881) organized bison hunts on the borders of Poland. Thus in October 1860, during a hunt in the Biatowieza forest, he killed no fewer than 28 bison. These hunts carried a very strong symbolism, highlighting the skill and courage required to confront an animal of brute strength, a prestigious survivor of the fauna of prehistoric times, a rare species in Europe. For the Russian nobility, confronting the bison was a way of reclaiming its past chivalrous identity. Henri TRODOUX certainly kept in mind this impressive animal, which had not really inspired French sculptors until then. Antoine-Louis BARYE, the great animal sculptor, had not left any bronze, only a few sketches and watercolors ... However, in this year 1875, the Jardin des Plantes presented one to the public. The crowd rushed in the afternoon to see it with the tiger, polar bear, and orangutan.

This magnificent American bison inspired Henri TRODOUX who carved a tempestuous buffalo. He restored with exceptional realism the thick woolly mane that surrounds its head and its fleshy hump to cover its shoulders. If in Eastern Europe the bison is an endangered species, in the American prairies, they live in "herds so considerable, that they sometimes cover these vast solitudes like a living sea. »1 So with a powerful realism he proposed at the Salon des Artistes français in 1876, under the number 3626, a « Bison de l'Ouest des Prairies de l'Iowa », in plaster. Standing on its four solid legs, this bison gives off an impression of vigor and energy. Its solid musculature rolls under its skin and one almost expects to see it, with a powerful belching breath from its nostrils, set itself in motion and quickly charge straight ahead, head down. Only very few bronze editions of this sculpture have been made.

Who was Henri TRODOUX? Another very mysterious sculptor, this Henri Émile Adrien TRODOUX. What do we know about him? Not much in truth, except that he was born in Saint Petersburg where his father, like many French artists, taught sculpture at the School of Fine Arts, the same one that had been created in 1757 by the Empress of Russia, the great Catherine II. Young Henri followed his father's teachings, before joining the School of Fine Arts in turn. He began his career in his hometown, which he eventually left to settle in Paris. He exhibited animals, busts and medallions at the Salons des Artistes français from 1874 to 1878.

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