DAVID" BRONZE BY ANTONIN MERCIE (1854-1916)

Brown patina bronze depicting King David defeating Goliath. It stands on a circular base decorated with oriental motifs. Signed on the base: "A. Mercié". Barbedienne foundry. Mechanical reduction by COLAS. The plaster model of "David" was executed by Antonin Mercié at the Villa Medici in Rome between 1869 and 1870. Echoing the political realities of the time, notably the defeat of 1870, the sculpture quickly became a huge success: the plaster, which earned the young artist the Légion d'honneur, was commissioned in bronze by the French government in 1872, exhibited at the Salon of the same year, and placed in the Musée du Luxembourg from 1874. It became one of the most popular images in illustrated newspapers, and was so popular that the Barbedienne foundry produced it in six different sizes. A marble copy was presented at the Exposition Universelle of 1889, and a plaster copy at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Other life-size bronze examples are in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. Bibliography: Catalogue des oeuvres du musée d'Orsay (http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/collections/catalogue-des-oeuvres/notice.html?no_cache=1&nnumid=16003) XIX° period, Circa: 1880 Dim: W:34cm, D:33cm, H:74cm.