H: 39 in / 99.5 cm | W: 13 in / 33.5 cm
Description
A well patinated bronze figure, representing an American Indian, wearing a draped headdress, robe and a pendant hooped earring. Signed to the plinth ‘A.Tossaint 1850’, and the foundry, ‘Graux-Marly, Fat. de Bronze’
France, circa 1850
The Parisian firm of Graux-Marly was established in 1845, with premises at 37, boulevard du Temple. In 1849 the company won a bronze medal at the’ Exposition of French Products of the Second Republic’ and this was bettered six years later by a first-class medal at the’ Paris Universelle Exposition of 1855’ for bronzes and decoration made at its larger foundry in 41, boulevard du Temple.
Toussaint (1806-1862) was a pupil of David d’Angers, and showed at the Paris Salon from 1832 onwards; elected as a Chevalier to the Legion d’honneur in 1852; the Fine Art Museum of Angers exhibits his bust of David d’Angers.
This figure of the Indian Slave also features in the Barbedienne catalogue, page 72.
Literature; Benezit, ‘Dictionnaire des Peintures, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Gravures’, published by Librairie Grund, 1976
