Eugène Jean-Baptiste Claude GUILLAUME (1822-1905) Original p - Lot 259

Lot 259
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12000 - 18000 EUR
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Result : 24 375EUR
Eugène Jean-Baptiste Claude GUILLAUME (1822-1905) Original p - Lot 259
Eugène Jean-Baptiste Claude GUILLAUME (1822-1905) Original patinated plaster representing Orpheus charming the ferocious beasts, symbol of creativity and "creative thought subjecting the forces of nature, and translating the alliance of art and industry", it rests on a round base. This plaster was exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of 1878 under the n°4315. Eugène Guillaume was awarded a medal of honour1. (restorations, patina restoration) Base painted in imitation of marble from a later period. Total height H: 197 cm Top of the base H: 46 cm Provenance: Collection Eugène Guillaume, collection Hector Le Fuel and remained in their descendants until today. The commentary at the World's Fair mentions 2 "The Orpheus that we see this year for the first time brings a new note. The nervous elegance of 15th century Italian art must have passed through the mind of the sculptor and yet it is of all these works the one with the most modern and passionate feeling. Orpheus, standing naked, with a small tawny licking his feet, raises his right arm as if he were obeying an unconscious feeling of triumph, and with his left hand holds his long lyre, which he was just now sounding and whose shaking still vibrates in his chest and face. The head, where the silent ardour and the bubbling of inner enthusiasm breathes, is framed by long wavy female hair, which is intermingled with foliage, and this broad, freely thick hairstyle casts a shadow over the forehead and eyes. It is still only the plaster, but one can see in advance the superior effect of the marble, whose luminous whiteness, rising from the feet to the head on the plain surface of this straight body, will be broken in the middle of the face by this crown of penumbra, which will give all the intelligence of the forehead and the strange and deep passion of the gaze.If we compare French sculpture with what it was in 1867, not only do we find no symptoms of weakening and decadence, but we see a marked progress. Sculptors ev
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