A French Orientalist polychrome-patinated bronze bust entitled "Femme de Mequinez"
A French Orientalist polychrome-patinated bronze bust entitled "Femme de Mequinez"

CAST FROM A MODEL BY HONORE (HENRI) PLE, CIRCA 1884

细节
A French Orientalist polychrome-patinated bronze bust entitled "Femme de Mequinez"
Cast from a model by Honore (Henri) Ple, Circa 1884
Inscribed plé sculpt, on a waisted socle and footed base cast with masks and foliage
25½ in. (64.8 cm.) high, overall

拍品专文

Henri Honoré Plé (d.1922) studied under Gérault and Mathurin Moreau, and worked as a painter and sculptor of portraits and bas-reliefs. He exhibited figures and projects for memorials at the Salon from 1877, winning an honourable mention in 1879 before going on to receive a bronze medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle.

The present lot - likely the model entitled "Femme de Mequinez" exhibited at the Salon of 1884 - is a fine example of polychrome sculpture. A controversial genre when revived in the 1850s by Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier and John Gibson, polychromy became increasingly fashionable in the 1860's, eventually meriting its own class at the Salons and International Exhibitions.