An Orientalist Lifesize Figural Bronze Statue

Object Description

An Orientalist Lifesize Figural Bronze Statue, Attributed to Louis Hottot (French, 1834-1906).

Modelled as a lady in Ottoman dress standing beneath an Eastern style pagoda with minaret. Depicting as if answering a call and stepping forward in greeting.

France, Circa 1890.

This impressive figural group is a rare work in bronze attributed to the Orientalist sculptor Louis Hottot whose oeuvre is more readily associated with what was called ‘bronze imitation’, referring to sculpture in white-metal or, as it is known today, spelter. That this large statue is cast from superior and costly bronze is indicative of its rarity and importance. The Orientalist subject relates to paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935) Gustav Bauernfeind (1848-1904) and especially, the painting ‘Entrance to a Harem’ by Addison Thomas Millar (1860-1913).

Object History

Louis Hottot is best remembered for his Orientalist sculpture which captures the European fascination with a romanticised historical imagining of the Middle East, as notably portrayed by the French painters Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).

Louis Hottot, sculptor, is recorded by Benezit Dictionary of Artists to have died in 1906 and as a member of the ‘Société des Artistes Français’. He is listed by Baron Haussmann’s census as early as 1863 producing ‘bronzes d’imitation’ from premises at 10 rue de Crussol, Paris.

He exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exhibition in classe 22, for ‘bronzes d’art, fontes d’art diverses et ouvrages en métaux repoussés’. At the Palais des Champs-Élysées in 1886 he exhibited ‘La bonne soupe’, a statue in plaster, and ‘Rêverie’, a relief in plaster. By this time M. Hottot is Vice President de la Chambre syndicale du bronze-imitation. At the Salon of 1885, Hottot exhibited ‘Fille d’Egypte’ a statue in bronze polychrome of ‘grande charme pittoresque’.

Object Details