David après le combat

Details

Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié (French, 1845-1916)
David après le combat
signed 'A. Mercié', inscribed with foundry mark 'F. Barbedienne Fondeur, Paris' and stamped with Achillé Collas 'Réduction Mécanique' seal
bronze, dark-brown patina
43¼ in. (110 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, Sussex.
with Peter Nahum, London, 1994.

Literature

P. Fusco, H. W. Janson ed., Exhibition catalogue, The Romantics to Rodin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1980, pp. 303-4, no. 166 (another cast).
Musée d'Orsay, Catalogue Sommaire Illustré des Sculptures, Paris, 1986, p. 196 (another cast).
M. Forrest, Art Bronzes, Pennsylvania, 1988, fig. 2.78 (another cast).

Special notice

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Lot Essay

First exhibited at the Salon in 1872, David après le combat was modelled during Mercié's sojourn at the French Academy in Rome. The statue's initial impact was such that it won the sculptor the unprecedented honour of being the only artist to receive the Cross of the Legion of Honour while still a student. An extremely bold statement by a sculptor in his mid-twenties, David was considered one of the seminal examples of neo-Renaissance sculpture, and was compared with masterpieces by Verrocchio, Michelangelo and, above all, Donatello.

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