Charles Delhommeau (1883-1970) - "panther On A Rock"

“Panther on a rock” Very fine bronze proof with a dark brown patina, nuanced Sand cast by the F. Barbedienne foundry – marked “F. Barbedienne” on the base of the rock on the back and stamped: “bronze” Signed “C. Delhommeau” on the rock on the back Circa 1935 Dimensions: Height: 46.5 cm Length: 66 cm – Depth: 20 cm Biography: Animal sculptor Charles Delhommeau was born on March 29, 1883 in Paris, where his father worked as a civil servant. Little is known about his early artistic studies, but it is known that he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1904 with a plaster cast of a "Cat at the Fire". In 1913, he exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and became a member twenty years later in 1932. In 1938 and on the recommendation of his sculptor friend Louis de Monard, he collaborated with the Manufacture de Sèvres with a first sculpture: "Naked Woman, After the Bath". Then various animal pieces were published: rabbit, lemur, panther, swan, tigers... In 1941, still under the recommendations of Louis de Monard, Charles Delhommeau proposed to the Manufacture a centerpiece representing the "Twelve months of the year with a central figure of Apollo emerging from the clouds". In a letter dated December 26, 1941, the Manufacture offered the French State the opportunity to acquire this sculpture, Delhommeau being presented as an artist highly regarded for his skills and technique in the restoration of Degas' wax figures. 13 porcelain copies of this centerpiece were delivered to the French Government in December 1942. Most of his bronze sculptures were produced by the Fonderie Leblanc-Barbedienne. His editions, always limited, were invariably of very high quality. Animal sculpture became his favorite subject. Like Bugatti and Pompon before him, the artist devoted himself to long sessions observing animals at the Jardin des Plantes and the Vincennes Zoo. He produced numerous preparatory drawings, watercolors and oils and also acquired a reputation as an animal painter. This quest for a perspective on the real life of his models is a prerequisite for a work of slight simplifications of the forms of the animals studied. Paris Manaus Gallery