Imposing Bronze Ordeal - Military Courage - Paul Dubois & Ferdinand Barbedienne

Imposing bronze proof with brown patina with an allegorical subject, representing "Le Courage Militaire". Signed on the back: "P. DUBOIS". Old edition cast 1885-1890 "F. BARBEDIENNE Fondeur Paris" and mechanical reduction stamp A. Collas. Resting on a fluted cherry marble base ending with a gilded bronze outline Dimension of the base: Height: 12.5cm Width: 28.8cm Depth: 36cm Dimension of bronze Bronze height: 86cm Base & bronze height: 98.5cm Paul Dubois (1829-1905) entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1858, then left for Italy. The Florentine sculpture of the Renaissance left its mark on his art in a definitive way. The "Saint Jean-Baptiste", exhibited at the Salon in 1864, and his "Chanteur Florentin", the following year, are two works that will make him famous. From 1880 he also worked as a painter and simultaneously exhibited sculptures and paintings. Our subject, presented at the Salon in 1881, is inspired by a funerary work by Michelangelo: the statue of Giuliano de Medici from the Medici Chapel in Florence. "Military Courage" is one of the four bronze figures adorning the corners of General de la Moricière's cenotaph. This monument built by the architect Louis Boitte for Nantes Cathedral was inaugurated in 1879. The plaster model by Dubois is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Troyes. The bronze original is in Nantes Cathedral.