Leopold Chauveau (French, 1870-1940): a martele bronze Monst...

Hammer

£9,000

Leopold Chauveau (French, 1870-1940): a martele bronze Monstre sculpture, being a seated figure of a fantastical monster, with L.C. and foundry mark, likely Swiss, for 1913 under the left paw, this would appear to be a partner piece to that exhibited in the Musee D'Orsay Exhibition in 2020, illustrated on page 89 of the catalogue of 'The Land of Monsters: Leopold Chauveau (1870-1940)', held in 2020, from March to September which was a retrospective of the Artist's sculptures and artworks, this bronze has a gentle patina, and shows numerous detailed finishing marks, 17cm high. Provenance: Sculptures by this influential 20th century artist very rarely come up for auction as many have remained in the artists family or have been donated to museums. Detailed photographs of the sculpture have been forwarded to a member of the artist’s family with whom much of his work remains and from whom many works have been donated to the Musee d’Orsay. Although unable to view the actual bronze in person, based on the provided photographs as well as the foundry marks, and his knowledge of the other works by the artist including the companion piece, he would assess this to be an authentic piece by the artist, (with the proviso that he has not handled it in person). Furthermore he has added that the hand finishing is not only characteristic of works by Leopold Chauveau, but the time and effort to finish them in this way meant that each piece is unique and to his knowledge the artist therefore only ever created one or two versions of the same figure. He is also personally delighted to see this one surface after so long.