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Impressive Bronze Sculpture Fighting Elk

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:690.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Impressive Bronze Sculpture Fighting Elk
Fighting Elk Bronze Sculpture, After PJ Mene, 17"W x 8"H x 8"D26 lbs This bronze sculpture was produced using the "Lost Wax" casting method. The"Lost Wax" Cast method is the most precise metal casting technique in existence, ensuring exquisite detail of the original host model which is usually sculpted in clay or wax. This "Lost Wax" casting method is an extremely labor intensive and expensive process, but the end results produce a Heirloom Quality Masterpiece! The elk, or wapiti (Cervus canadensis), is one of the largest species of deer in the world and one of the largest mammals in North America and eastern Asia.Pierre Jules Mêne, (1810 -1879), was a FrenchSculptor andanimalière. He is considered the pioneer of animal sculpture in the nineteenth-century.Mêne produced a number of animal sculptures, mainly of domestic animals including horses, cows and bulls, sheep and goats which were in vogue during the Second Empire. He was one of a school of French animalières which also included Rosa Bonheur, Pierre Louis Rouillard, Antoine-Louis Barye, Auguste Caïn, and François Pompon.His work was first shown in London by Ernest Gambart in 1849. Mêne specialized in small bronze figures which explains why none of his works exist as public statuary. His work was a popular success with the bourgeois class and many editions of each sculpture were made, often to decorate an increasing number of private homes of the period. The quality of these works is high, comparable to Barye's. Mêne also seems to have enjoyed a longer period of success and celebrity than his contemporaries. He is considered to have been the lost-wax casting expert of his time, later surpassed only by Auguste Rodin.