Object Description
Orientalist bronze group of Biblical subject by Guillemin
French, late 19th Century
Height 80cm, width 60cm, depth 23cm
This impressive patinated bronze sculpture is by the celebrated Orientalist sculptor Émile Coriolan Hippolyte Guillemin and was cast by the bronzier Émile Henri Servant. The bronze depicts a moment drawn from the Bible: Rebecca with Abraham’s servant, to whom she offers a drink of water as recounted in Genesis 24. Guillemin has taken this Biblical subject matter and interpreted it through an Orientalist lens: the manner of the sculpture is firmly within the late nineteenth century French Orientalist tradition, with both the servant and Rebecca portrayed in North African garb. The piece is superbly cast and is finished with a lustrous and variegated patina.
The base is signed ‘É le Guillemin’ for the sculptor and ‘G. Servant. Bronzier’ for the bronzier.