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Jean-Claude Kremer (27/1/2009)
Je possède une statuette en bronze intitulée L'HIVER et signée « J. Pradier » (39 cm x 29 cm). Pouvez vous me donner des infos sur cette pièce? Merci.
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Douglas Siler (27/1/2009)
Pourriez-vous me dire si le nom « J. Pradier » inscrit sur l’estampille en laiton est aussi inscrit quelque part sur la statuette elle-même? En tout cas il est très peu probable que cette œuvre soit de James Pradier. Elle n’est pas dans son style et n’est pas répertoriée parmi ses œuvres connues. A mon avis elle doit dater de la seconde moitié du 19e ou du début du 20e siècle. Je me demande s’il ne s’agit pas d’un des mineurs du sculpteur belge Constantin Meunier. Je vais demander l’avis de M. Claude Lapaire, ancien directeur des musées de Genève, qui prépare le catalogue des œuvres de Pradier. Je vous tiens au courant de sa réponse.
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Douglas Siler (18/2/2009)
Voici la réponse de Claude Lapaire:
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Je partage votre avis concernant la statuette en bronze d'une personne (je ne distingue pas le visage) vêtue d'une pèlerine et se chauffant à un brasero. Même si l'ouvrage porte le nom de Pradier, il ne s'agit pas d'un travail de sa main. La statuette me paraît remonter aux dernières années du 19e siècle.
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Comme vous le voyez, son avis coïncide avec le mien. Mais je suis toujours curieux de savoir si le nom « J. Pradier » inscrit sur l’estampille est également inscrit sur la statuette elle-même.
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Jean-Claude Kremer (18/2/2009)
Merci de votre engagement suite a mon mail. Je ne trouve pas de signature autre inscrite sur la statuette. Mais j'apprécie votre dévouement.
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Douglas Siler (28/3/2012)
Plus de trois ans après les échanges précédents, voici une autre épreuve de cette statuette qui vient d'être mise en vente sur ebay:
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Elle porte le même type d'estampille, seulement le titre est devenu « VEILLEUR DE NUIT », l'initiale « J. » de « J. Pradier » a été omise et la parenthèse entourant « Statuaire » n'a pas été fermée. Elle porte par surcroît un poinçon rond avec l'inscription « FABRICATION FRANÇAISE / MADE IN FRANCE / PARIS » et, sur la terrasse, entre les bottes du personnage, trois ou quatre lettres en relief difficiles à déchiffrer (voir photos ci-après).
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Cette épreuve diffère de l'autre aussi par l'adjonction d'un pan de clôture contre lequel s'appuie une pelle et d'une lampe électrique fixée sur l'arrière de la clôture. Une autre petite lampe éclaire l'intérieur du brasero. Elle mesure environ 38 cm de haut sur 18,5 cm de long sur 14,5 cm de profondeur.
La vente ebay sera clôturée le 3 avril 2012. Pour plus de détails, voir l'annonce à cette date en cliquant ici: Ventes 2012.
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Douglas Siler (29/3/2012)
A propos du poinçon « FABRICATION FRANÇAISE / MADE IN FRANCE / PARIS », un article daté du 4 juin 2011 sur le site The Art Detective fournit les informations suivantes au sujet d'une statuette-lampe par Alfred Barye (fils du célèbre animalier) et Émile Guillemin d'un Chasseur arabe à cheval sur laquelle figure un poinçon identique:
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This spelter lamp version was produced by « Fabrication Française, Paris ». The circular foundry mark bares this name at the top, an image [of] a crucible set on flames in the center, with the « Made in France » ringing the bottom of the circle. The « Made in France » in English on the foundry mark is due to the U.S. trade law of 1891 that required all imports to be marked to indicate the country of origin. « Fabrication Française, Paris », (the earliest known mention of the company name is 1892) was a production company that manufactured many sculptures « after » the artist-produced bronze sculptures. Many were modified to include lamps or clocks but most of their castings were reproductions of the original sculptures sans the functional elements. These reproductions were rarely cast in bronze but cast in spelter metal or what is commonly called white metal or pot metal, sometimes with fabricated pieces in bronze and brass, and were painted to replicate the acid patinas of a bronze casting. The castings in less expensive spelter metal were most likely produced for the home décor and export markets between 1892 to as late as 1915. When this company ceased to exist is not known, but many European governments, leading up to World War I, absorbed private metal work manufactures for war production.
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Ces informations viennent à point nommé pour appuyer notre datation du Veilleur de nuit. Quant à l'épreuve sans poinçon intitulée L'hiver, elle a pu être produite par quelque autre fonderie mais vraisemblablement vers la même époque.
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Bill DeYoung (St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A., 25/6/2015)
I am looking for information on this bronze (perhaps?) statuette. Its title plate is shown in the last photograph below.
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I am hoping you might have more information since this forum was last updated three years ago, or may perhaps be able to send me somewhere else. My father, now deceased, kept this in his home office for many years. He was a frequent visitor to England, so I believe he probably bought it in a shop there in the 1960s or 1970s. It has a very old electric cord, with a small red light bulb to simulate the fire the person is using to warm his (or her) hands. Can you help me identify this statuette?
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Douglas Siler (25/6/2015)
The only new information I can provide for the moment is that in addition to your exemplar and the two others described above, a fourth one was sold on ebay on Feb. 22 this year by someone also located in Florida (Fort Lauderdale). You will find details of the sale here. And here are some photos of it:
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As you can see, it is essentially identical to the one discussed in my last two interventions above, with the same title, VEILLEUR DE NUIT (Night Watchman), engraved on its plate. The owner informed me that it also has the « MADE IN FRANCE » foundry mark.
Both of them differ from yours, which is more like the version submitted by Jean-Claude Kremer at the beginning of this forum, without the fence and the upright lamp and with the title L’HIVER (Winter) on its plate. The fact that there are two different versions with two different titles suggests that they came from two different manufacturers or distributors, but the fact that their plates are in French indicates that they were all produced in France. Also, the foundry mark on two of them indicates that those two, at least, were made for the export market. As discussed above, this mark probably dates from the late 19th century or the early 20th and it seems likely that both versions were produced at that time. It’s still a mystery to me why they all have Pradier’s name on their plates. But there are dozens of other works with his name on them or attributed to him which have nothing to do with him. See for example my article Deux sculptures en quête d'auteur (Two Sculptures in Search of an Author) which describes a similar case. It's worth noting, too, that the same type of name plate is found on other statuettes incorrectly attributed to Pradier.
Can you tell whether your exemplar is in bronze or in some other, lighter, metal? And does it also have a foundry mark on it?
Sorry I can’t be of more help. You might try posting your photos on some other forum. Hopefully someone will come up with an answer one day. Please let me know if you find out more.
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Douglas Siler (7/8/2015)
After further research I think I can now identify the sculptor who made this statuette. The work below posted on Flickr is another interpretation of the same subject in the same style:
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It's title plate is of the same type and reads « VEILLEUR DE NUIT / par E. Rousseau (Sculptr) ».
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Other works signed E. Rousseau can be found on the internet, many of them also equipped with lamps. See here, for example, one called Le Bivouac, wired to simulate the glow of a wood fire under a caldron. Or the one below, La Botteleuse (The Straw Binder, or Harvester), presently on sale on ebay, which has a similar plate as well as the « MADE IN FRANCE » foundry mark:
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I haven't found a biography for this sculptor yet but in descriptions of a Bound Slave Girl signed « E. Rousseau » which was sold in 2005 by Sotheby's in London and in 2006 by Weschler's in Washington, D.C., he is identified as Émile François Rousseau, born in 1853. There may be an entry for him in the Bénézit Dictionary of Artists but I haven't had a chance to check it yet.
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