CAST FROM MODELS BY EMILE-LOUIS PICAULT, CIRCA 1900

Emile-Louis Picault (d.1915), specialised in producing allegorical figures, warriors, and historical and mythological characters. Among these were several models of Egyptian pharoahs and queens, priests and priestesses. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the premiere of Aida in 1871, there was a renewed vogue for Egyptian style. Painters and sculptors such as Picault were influenced by the ethnographic findings of the mid-19th century as well as by theatre and costume designs. Picault studied under Royer and exhibited at the Paris Salons from 1863 to 1909.