Brown patina .
Signature of the sculptor " A. Cain " on the naturalistic terrace , in the shape of a sphere .
19th century period .
Circa 1880 .
In a perfect state .
Auguste Nicolas Cain ( 1822 -1894 )
Auguste Nicolas Cain , born November 10 , 1821 in Paris , the city where he died on August 25 , 1894 , is a French animal sculptor .
After working in the family butcher's shop , Auguste Cain entered the studio of Alexandre Guionnet and then became a student of François Rude .
Like Antoine Louis Barye a few years earlier , he studied animal anatomy by drawing at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris .
In the 1840s , he offered models of goldsmithing for the Fannieres brothers , Rudolfi , and Maison Christophe .
Auguste Cain joined forces with the sculptor Pierre-Jules Mène , whose daughter he married in 1852 .
He began exhibiting at the Salon in 1846 with a wax group of Warblers defending their nest against a dormouse , which has now disappeared , but which was later cast in bronze and presented at the Salon of 1855 .
During the 1840s and 1850s in addition to the sculpture of small animal figures, Cain also created decorative objects with animal motifs, such as matchboxes , goblets or candlesticks .
Auguste Cain himself melts his works and those of his stepfather. His subjects often represent animals in their natural context, both for his statuettes and for the larger sculptures .
After his death , the foundry was closed and the molds sold to Ferdinand Barbedienne who continued to make prints.
Auguste Cain is the father of the painter and writer Georges Cain, and of the man of letters and painter Henri Cain .