"lioness With Arrows" By Charles Valton (1851-1918) - Siot Cast

“Lioness with Arrows” by Charles Valton (1851–1918) - Circa 1891

A sublime and striking bronze sculpture with a brown patina, enhanced with shades of red and green, and gold (arrows).
This work depicts a wounded lioness in her final agony, struggling to survive.
The subject is gripping: every muscle of the great feline is revealed in this ultimate surge of life.
The master animal sculptor’s design is elevated by exceptional chiseling and patina, signed by the prestigious Siot foundry in Paris.

For this sculpture, Valton drew inspiration from an Assyrian bas-relief preserved in the British Museum, London. The original work, dating from the 7th century BC, depicts Ashurbanipal hunting lions, driven by horsemen toward the king’s chariot.

A version of this piece once stood in Parc Monceau, in Paris’s affluent 17th arrondissement, before its unfortunate destruction during World War II in 1942 (cf photo)

Finely chiseled, with a beautiful patina in shades of green, brown, and gold (on the arrows)

Signed C. Valton on the front of the base.
Signed SIOT PARIS and numbered on the back of the base.

Length: 48 cm
Height : 29cm

You will receive exactly what is shown in the photos.

Excellent condition.

(*) Charles Valton (1851–1918):

Animal sculptor, pupil of Barye and Frémiet, a frequent visitor of the Jardin des Plantes from the age of fifteen. He exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1868 to 1914, first plaster and a few waxes, then, from 1880 onward, almost exclusively small bronze groups, often combined with other materials. Most of his subjects were wild animals, especially lions and lionesses. The Wounded Lioness, exhibited in bronze, was inspired by an Assyrian bas-relief. Despite the variety of subjects he presented at the Salon, his works do not appear to have been extensively reproduced. However, some of Valton’s bronzes do appear at public auctions or with antique dealers. The Siot-Decauville foundry notably produced The Wounded Lioness. (Excerpt from Les Bronzes du XIXe siècle by P. Kjellberg).