CAST BY HIPPOLYTE PEYROL FROM A MODEL BY ISIDORE JULES BONHEUR, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Perhaps Bonheur's best-known horse and jockey group, Le Grand Jockey (no. 4817) shows the jockey patting the horse's neck in congratulation and appreciation, in trot after a victorious finish. First exhibited at the 1879 Salon in bronze, under the title Un Jockey, it was displayed alongside another of his important large equestrian studies, Un cavalier, époque Louis XV (no. 4816; see Christie's New York, 28 October 2003, lot 257). The Salon entries indicate that his atelier was at the time 'Chez M. Peyrol, rue de Crussol, 14'. Four years later, Bonheur and Peyrol had evidently realised the commercial potential of these models, for Bonheur exhibited them again at the Exposition Nationale des Beaux Arts of 1883 (nos. 893 & 894) and for a third time at the Exposition Universelle of 1889, when he was awarded the prestigious Medaille d'Or. Le Grand Jockey was subsequently edited in four different sizes, the present cast being an example of the second largest version. A Peyrol cast of the same size sold Christie's, London, 20 May 2005, lot 90 (£54,000).