Auguste Clesinger,

This bronze sculpture was cast by the Barbedienne foundry after a plaster model made by Auguste Clésinger (1814 - 1883) in 1858 and presented at the Salon of 1859. Auguste Clésinger is a French sculptor and painter, son of the sculptor Georges Clésinger with whom he studied sculpture in Rome from the age of eighteen. In Rome, Clésinger follows the teaching of the sculptor Thorwaldsen. He returned to France and in particular to Paris in 1838 to continue his studies and entered the following year in the studio of the sculptor David d'Angers. He traveled a lot in the 1840s between Switzerland and Italy before marrying the daughter of Georges Sand in 1847. He exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1843 and continued throughout his career to send regularly his works. He thus obtained in 1846 a third class medal, the following year a second class medal, thanks to his famous sculpture "Woman bitten by the snake", and in 1848, a first class medal for his sculpture "Bacchante lying" . He was subsequently decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1849 and appointed Officer the following year. He also signed an exclusive contract with the Barbedienne foundry, which then presented bronze reductions of some of his works, including "Zingara". Clésinger thus produced a work called the Zingara also meaning bohemian. It represents a young woman dressed in a tunic with excessive drapes and adorned with many jewels dancing to the sound of her tambourine which she brandishes with her left hand. Our bronze reduction, an identical model of which is kept at the Musée d'Orsay, also bears on its base a plaque on which one can read "Souvenir des workers à Mr Auguste Desgenetais September 4, 1869". Auguste Desgenetais (1821 - 1882) ran a cotton spinning and mechanical weaving factory at Bolbec in Normandy, whose establishments were considerably enlarged in the 1870s. On the death of the director, the establishment then employed 800 workers and included 250 looms and 40,000 spindles. In the 1960s, the establishment was called Comptoir Industriel du Coton. The main building was destroyed by fire in 1997 and the chimney was demolished in 1998. The employer's housing has been preserved.