Terracotta Bust Of Ceres - Allegory Of Summer

BONTOUX Antoine (1805-1892) Allegory of summer Important terracotta bust of Ceres on a pedestal depicting a woman dressed in armor and a toga, crowned with ears of wheat and oak leaves, the whole resting on an applique console decorated with a foliated garland and a medallion with a profile of a woman identical to that of the bust in a laurel wreath, marked "Arnaud Etienne et Cie", Société générale des tuileries de Marseille. The bust Signed and dated 1871 in a fold of the drape. Dimensions of the bust: H. 85.5 cm - P.34 cm - L.67cm Dimensions of the console: H. 56 cm - P.34 cm - L.34 cm Total dimensions: 141.5 cm History: Our bust of Ceres is part of the course of the late nineteenth with the emergence of romanticism and the reinterpretation of the figure of the old regime brought up to date, our Ceres adopts the features of a Republican figure, wink to a strong and prosperous Republic! Biography: Bontoux Antoine (Marseille, January 17, 1805 - Marseille, July 8, 1892), sculptor Student of Louis-Mathurin Clérian (1763-1851) - his future father-in-law - at the Aix-en-Provence drawing school , it is as an autodidact that he turns to sculpture. He taught drawing in high school when Émile Loubon (1809-1863) offered him to create a sculpture class at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Marseille in 1846. From 1846 to 1881, when he asserted his rights to retirement, he trained a large number of ornamentalists as well as laureates of the Prix de Rome such as André Allar (1845-1926), Jean Turcan (1846-1895), Jean Hugues (1849-1930) and Henri Lombard (1855-1929 ). He exhibited only twice at the Paris Salon, in 1867 and 1878, but more assiduously attended the Marseille exhibitions from 1852 to 1891: Innocence (plaster, 1852), Enfant à la toupie (plaster, 1854; marble, 1861 and 1862 - acquired 2,000 francs in 1865 for the Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille), La Vierge aux fleurs (plaster model for the facade of 13 rue du Marché des Capucins, 1855), La Fidélité and La Force (terracotta model lions marking the entrance to Château Falguière, 1859)… He also produced a multitude of portraits: MG (terracotta bust, 1861), Her Majesty the Queen of Spain (plaster bust from photo for the Compagnie des forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, 1864), Mme F. and her daughter (plaster medallion, 1865), General G. de P. (bronze bust, 1866), ML Rabattu (marble bust, 1866). Building references in photo: Antoine Bontoux and his son-in-law Jean-Baptiste Mouren, African Atlanteans, stone, circa 1864 14 rue de Rome, 1st arrondissement