Louis Julien Franceschi (1825-1893) Fortune

Bronze with a double patina, nuanced brown and black, signed "J. FRANCESCHI."
Cast during the artist's lifetime.
Circa 1886.

Height 75 cm.

Description:
A very beautiful bronze presented at the Salon of 1886 representing an Allegory of Fortune.
Depicting a beautiful young woman dressed in a draped robe, she holds a cornucopia and rests on a winged wheel, a symbol of fortune.
Our sculpture is signed on the left side "J. FRANCESCHI."

Biography: Louis Julien Franceschi (1825-1893):
A naturalized French sculptor, 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 of the renowned sculptor François Rude from the age of 16, he made his debut at the Salon of 1848.
He is credited with numerous works, notably in Paris where he created The Thought on the façade of the Opéra Garnier, Painting in the Luxembourg Gardens, and the tomb of Miecislas Kamieński in the Montmartre Cemetery. He is also responsible for several sculptures in the Louvre: Mars in the Cour Carrée, History on the Flora Wing, Science in the Pavilion of the States, and the pediment of the Pavilion of Flora.

Two of his statues, Antoine-François Fourcroy and Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, adorn the facades of Paris City Hall.

He also executed busts of many of his contemporaries, including Jacques Offenbach (funeral monument in Paris's Montmartre Cemetery), Émile Augier, Eugène Delacroix, Charles Gounod, and Victor Massé.