Christophe Fratin (French, 1801-1864)

Fratin, along with Antoine-Louis Barye, was one of the earliest animalier sculptors who specialized in an animated and ruggedly realistic style. Born in Metz to a taxidermist father, Fratin gained an early knowledge of animal anatomy. He came to Paris as a young man and became a pupil of the celebrated painter Géricault. Fratin exhibited at the Salon from 1831 to 1863, almost consistently submitting bronze groups of animal subject matters.

The prolific Coalbrookdale Company was an iron and bronze founder active in England from the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth centuries. The company exhibited animalier casts by Mêne and others at the London Universal Exhibition of 1862.

For another illustration of the model, see P. Kjellberg, Les Bronzes du XIXe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 325.