Fortune By Louis Julien Franceschi, Circa 1886

Very beautiful bronze presented at the Salon in 1886 representing an Allegory of Fortune. In the guise of a beautiful young woman dressed in a drape, she holds a horn of plenty and rests on a winged wheel, symbols of fortune. Our statue dating from the end of the 19th century is signed on the left side J. FRANCESCHI. Height 75 cm Biography Louis Julien Franceschi (1825-1893) French sculptor by naturalization, born into a family of Italian origin in Bar-sur-Aube (Aube) on January 11, 1825, died in Paris on September 1, 1893. A student, from the age of 16, of the famous sculptor François Rude, he made his debut at the Salon of 1848. We owe him many achievements, notably in Paris where he created The Thought on the facade of the Opéra Garnier, The Painting in the Luxembourg Gardens, or the tomb of Miecislas Kamieński in the cemetery Montmartre. He is also responsible for certain sculptures in the Louvre Palace: Mars in the Cour Carrée, History on the Wing of Flora, Science in the Pavillon des États and the pediment of the Pavillon de Flore1. Two of his statues, Antoine-François Fourcroy and Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, adorn the facades of the Paris City Hall. He also executed busts of many of his contemporaries, including Jacques Offenbach (funeral monument in Paris at the Montmartre Cemetery), Émile Augier, Eugène Delacroix, Charles Gounod and Victor Massé.