The Merchant Of Oranges - Didier Debut 1824-1893

Period Second half of the 19th century Origin France School French school of oriental sculpture Dimensions Height: 30 cm Depth: 20 cm Width: 26 cm Weight: 2860 gr. Terrace Length: 14.8 cm Width: 11.3 cm Signature On the terrace: Debut Stamp of Garanti Plaque indicating “Prix de Rome”, Didier Debut having obtained the second Prix de Rome in 1851… Material Bronze proof with medal patina Compound of several pieces, the bronze is complete.

This theme seems to have been treated only by Didier Debut, unlike that of the water carrier which has inspired many sculptors. In a dynamic attitude, a young boy wearing a tarbouche, offers a sweet and juicy orange to passers-by. On his hip, his wicker basket, barely full, suggests that the sale has been quite good so far. The medal patina and its theme make this sculpture so rare.

Didier Debut, from monumental sculpture to small bronzes of Orientalist editions It was in Moulins, in the Allier, where his father, Captain Claude Blaise Debut (Régiment des Chasseurs à Cheval de la Somme) was Didier Debut. In September 1842 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he followed the teachings of David d'Angers. Second Prix de Rome in 1851, with a bas-relief representing the Greeks and the Trojans fighting over the body of Patroclus, he had already exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français since 1848. He presented works there with great regularity until the year of his death (1893), and was awarded an honorable mention. If he made several monumental statues for the facade of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the Palais Garnier or the Commercial Court of the capital (16 caryatids of one meter eighty, in 1868), posterity does not keep than the memory of his small edition bronzes marked by the orientalist movement of the time.

Copyright The Treasures of Gamaliel