Object Description
This fine and exceptionally cast patinated bronze sculpture is the work of two masters of the decorative arts, Henri Chapu (French, 1833-1891) and Ferdinand Barbedienne (French, 1810-1892). Chapu was responsible for the design of the sculpture which is titled ‘La Jeunesse’ and depicts a young girl swathed in Classical style clothing reaching up to place a laurel branch on top of a wall.
The original work was crafted in white marble as part of a monument to Henri Regnault (French, 1843-1871), a painter who died in battle during the Franco-Prussian war. The monument with the marble is situated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
This present bronze of ‘La Jeunesse’ was cast on a smaller scale by the foundry of celebrated metalworker, Barbedienne, whose signature ‘F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR. / PARIS’ is inscribed to the side. The sculpture is also signed to the lower front ‘H. Chapu’, and impressed with the stamp for A. Collas (who was in partnership with Barbedienne, and who developed the process of producing replicas in miniature, known as “réduction méchanique”).