Bronze Sculpture "the Two Friends" Signed Charles Paillet

Charles Paillet (1871-1937), signed "Ch. Paillet" and stamp Barbedienne, for Leblanc-Barbedienne, melted wax. Bronze with dark brown patina, on a marble plinth. On a marble terrace, a small Siamese cat is nestled between the paws of an Irish wolfhound. Charles Paillet is an animal sculptor, born in Moulins-Engilbert, and working in his workshop in Arcueil. We owe him, in addition to a few monuments to the dead in the aftermath of the First World War, charming subjects, featuring dogs, or bears, which without losing their character gives the illusion of human feelings, escaping a latent sentimentality. . Thus undoubtedly his masterpiece, "the two friends" where an Irish wolfhound - Irish wolfhound, the largest dog in the world, quite impressive - looks with tenderness at a young Siamese cat, comfortably installed, and that we guess purring : the opposition between the excessiveness of one and the confidence of the other is presented here as if to teach us a lesson, to say the least, of tolerance, if not love. A pupil of Georges Gardet, naturalist, he exhibited at salons from 1897, and until 1921. He belongs to a generation caught between the great period of Méne, Barye, Valton, and the art-deco sculpture of Pompons or Sandoz. His elegant and detailed style, precise, is not without recalling that of Troubetskoy.