Paul Richer - Peasant Drinking, Leaning Against Sheaves Of Wheat - Original Terracotta

Peasant Drinking, Leaning Against Sheaves of Wheat.
Terracotta vase made before 1898. This piece depicts a peasant drinking, leaning against sheaves of wheat, an emblematic motif of rural life and peasant scenes that Paul Richer loved to explore in his creations. This vase illustrates the artist's desire to integrate peasant iconography into decorative art objects intended for the home.

Richer was often interested in popular figures and agricultural trades, which he explored in dishes, vases, decorative reliefs, and small sculptures. Some vase and planter designs were also produced in pewter by the Susse Frères foundry.

Paul Richer, renowned as both a sculptor and a physician-anatomist, was a student and collaborator of Professor Charcot at the Salpêtrière Hospital. A professor of artistic anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1903, he combined science and the visual arts. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1878 onwards and won several medals for his sculptures in the round, often centered on realistic human figures: peasants, workers, or depictions of human movement. Among his famous pieces is The First Artist (1890), showing a prehistoric man sculpting a mammoth. Several of his works are held at the Musée d'Orsay, attesting to his unique approach combining scientific observation and artistic expression.

Peasant Drinking, Leaning Against Sheaves of Wheat.
Original terracotta, signed Paul Richer on the side.
This model is known from a plaster cast in a private collection, which was presented at the exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres in 2023. It belongs to Paul Richer's decorative production inspired by the rural world and peasant figures.

Good overall condition.
Height: 37 cm.