The Poet Riding Pegasus Alexandre Falguière

Imposing 19th century bronze by A.E. André Falguière. Beautiful patina, he is one of the great French sculptors of the 19th century. In 1882, he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Among Falguière's students were Antonin Mercié, Laurent Marqueste, Gaston Schnegg, Camille Crenier, Achille Jacopin, Maurice Bouval and Jean-Marie Mengue, the most famous of them being Antoine Bourdelle. He was promoted to Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1889. In 1898, Falguière received the commission for the Monument to Balzac after the refusal of that of Auguste Rodin by the Société des gens de lettres, his sponsors. The affair caused a scandal that the press called the "second Dreyfus affair" because Émile Zola supported Rodin[10]. To prove that this episode had in no way affected their friendship, Falguière created the bust of Rodin[11] for the Salon of 1897 and for his part Rodin sculpted a bust of Falguière. Among the public commissions, we can distinguish the Monument to Cardinal Lavigerie for Bayonne, the plaster of which is preserved in Toulouse at the Musée des Augustins, the Monument to Goudouli in Toulouse, the Monument to Gambetta in Cahors, the Monument to La Fayette in Washington.