James Pradier

JAMES PRADIER (Switzerland, 1790 - France, 1852).
"Sappho".
Patinated bronze.
Unique size. A marble copy is currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, deposited from the Louvre Museum in 1986.
Signed.
With casting marks of Susse Freres.
Marble pedestal.
Measurements: 80 x 90 x 50 cm; 125 cm (total height with base).

Sappho, the poetess of Lesbos, appears here represented with a serene and concentrated countenance, of strong woman. She is seated on a stool with lion's claws and next to her rests her lyre, an indispensable instrument to accompany her verses. Pradier has recreated the mythical poetess in accordance with neoclassical tastes.

A native of Geneva, Pradier traveled to Paris in 1807 to work with his older brother, an engraver by profession. He won a Prix de Rome that allowed him to study in that city between 1814 and 1818 with Ingres, and in 1827 he became a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts and a professor at the École de Beaux Arts. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pradier supervised the finishing of his sculptures. He is represented in the Louvre and Orsay Museums in Paris, the Metropolitan in New York, the Chi-Mei in Taiwan and the Courtauld Institute in London, among others.
The caster, Auguste Maximilien Delafontaine, heir to a family tradition started in the second half of the 18th century by Jean Baptiste Maximilien Delafontaine, deserves special mention. Auguste Maximilien took over the reins of the family factory in 1840, thus beginning the most fruitful period for this foundry. During these years, important sculptors of the time, such as Duret, Cavlier and Pradier, collaborated with Delafontaine.