Lot 189
189
A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE GROUPS OF LOVERS, REPRESENTING THE ARTS AND AGRICULTURE, cast from models by Moreau, each showing the lovers standing and embracing, in the Arts group the maiden holding a lyre and the man a scroll, in the Agriculture group the maiden holding a sheaf of wheat in the crook of her right arm and a posy of flowers in her right hand, the man with a straw hat enlaced with vine, and a gourd flask hanging from his left side, each signed Moreau, second half 19th Century

Details
A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE GROUPS OF LOVERS, REPRESENTING THE ARTS AND AGRICULTURE, cast from models by Moreau, each showing the lovers standing and embracing, in the Arts group the maiden holding a lyre and the man a scroll, in the Agriculture group the maiden holding a sheaf of wheat in the crook of her right arm and a posy of flowers in her right hand, the man with a straw hat enlaced with vine, and a gourd flask hanging from his left side, each signed Moreau, second half 19th Century
17in. (43.2cm.) high (2)
Literature
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
H. Berman, Bronzes, Sculptors & Founders, Chicago, 1980, no. 4460

Lot Essay

The present pair of bronzes are signed simply Moreau, but the style and subject matter suggest that the author is one of the older generation of Moreaus, Mathurin, Hippolyte or Auguste. The finely cast lovers are represented as Arcadian figures in Classical attire, and the composition and subject matter closely resemble the work Bergers d'Arcadie by Eugène-Antoine Aizelin of 1867 illustrated in Berman (op. cit.).

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