Francisque Duret Bronze Nineteenth (h: 55cm)

Large 19th century bronze sculpture with brown bronze patina signed F. Duret (Francisque Joseph DURET 1804-1865) and titled on the base 'L'Improvisateur' featuring a Neapolitan in the taste of Bacchus playing the Mandolin near a barrel adorned with vineyards. Reduced to first size bronze exposed to the Salon of 1839. Good condition, dimensions: 55.5 cm high X 20 cm wide. French sculptor, Francisque Duret (Paris, 1804-1865) claims to be classical antiquity seen through the Florentine Renaissance. Son of the sculptor François-Joseph Duret, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1818 and won the Prix de Rome in 1823 for the Pain d'Évander in the presence of the body of his son Pallas. From Rome, Duret made several deliveries: the Shepherd of Virgil, Sapho holding Phaon or Mercury inventing the lyre which was presented at the Salon of 1831. It was during a trip to Naples that he imagined one of his the most famous bronzes, Young fisherman dancing the tarantella which is exhibited at the Salon of 1833 (Musée du Louvre). Numerous reductions have been made. The Neapolitan Dancer, presented at the Salon of 1838 as a pendant to the Young Fisherman, was also the subject of bronze editions. Several versions of the theme of the Neapolitan dancer are known to date: Neapolitan dancer (Montpellier), Young fisherman dancing tarantella (Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Paris), Neapolitan dancer with castanets (Nimes) Nimes).