Wounded Lioness - Bronze By Charles Valton (1851 - 1918)

Charles Valton (1851 - 1918)
Wounded lioness
Bronze with dark green patina
H.: 29 cm; W.: 47.5 cm; D.: 16 cm
Signed “C. VALTON»
Foundry stamp «COLIN. PARIS»
Old cast iron proof, Maison Colin

For this sculpture, Valton was inspired by an Assyrian bas-relief, from the British Museum in London. The work in question dates back to the 7th century BC and depicts Ashurbanipal hunting lions, tracked by horsemen towards the king's chariot. This bas-relief was discovered during excavations carried out at Nineveh in the 1850s.

Valton was perhaps inspired by an illustration published in the Gazette des Beaux Arts in 1887. The Wounded Lioness of the relief is reproduced in the gazette pierced by two arrows instead of three, just like our bronze.

This beautiful cast is the work of Emile Colin, the main founder of Charles Valton's work.

Literature

– The Wounded Lioness, in “Ancient Sculpture at the British Museum”, Gazette des Beaux Arts, t. 35, Paris, January 1887, p. 97.