Sculpture - Eastern Bohemian , Renzo Colombo (1856 - 1885) - Bronze

Bronze proof representing a bust of an oriental woman , wearing a dagger on her chest by Renzo Colombo .
Bronze with nuanced brown patina .
Orientalist bust set with semi-precious stones .
Bronze plaque bearing the title of the sculpture and the name of the sculptor " ORIENTAL BOHEME BY COLOMBO " .
Signature of the sculptor " KR COLOMBO " hollow on the side of the bust .
Inscription " Paris 1884 ".
Old cast iron .
19th century period .

RENZO COLOMBO (1856 - 1885)

Lorenzo Colombo was an Italian sculptor born in Gallarate (province of Varese) on February 16 , 1856 , and died in Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine) on September 28 , 1885 .

Renzo Colombo was the son of Giacomo Colombo , a musician , and Maria Grangé , a teacher .
As a child , he learned the piano , but around the age of 13 he started drawing , making caricatures of notables from Gallarate .
At 14 , he studied sculpture with Giuseppe Knoller who , thanks to financial support from the industrialist Costanzo Cantoni , got him into the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera .
His favorite themes are historical figures .

In 1875 he exhibited a bust of Francesco Ferrucci in Milan .
In 1877 , he moved to Florence where he was a pupil of Giovanni Dupré , and made the sketch of a group with a religious theme " Il Ritorno da Golgota " , for the tomb of the Martegani family in the cemetery of Gallarate .
 He left in 1880 for Turin , where he was a pupil of Odoardo Tabacchi. After a two-year stay in Genoa , he left in 1882 for Marseilles , France .
After settling in Paris , he met Louis François Billotey , whose daughter " Aline " he married in 1884 .

He exhibited at the Salon of French artists in 1883 , 1884 and 1885 .
In 1884 , he was appointed Artistic Director of the Musée Grévin in Paris .
He died the following year in Fougères and was buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles in Paris .

Some of Renzo Colombo's sculptures , made in plaster or terracotta , were produced in bronze .
Several of his works are now part of the collections of the " Museo della Società per gli Studi Patri " in Gallarate , where a street bears his name .
We have identified 35 works by him , the most popular is a bust entitled Napoleon I (1812) , exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1885 , and produced in numerous copies in bronze or marble .