Christophe Fratin

CHRISTOPHE FRATIN (Metz 1801-Le Raincy (Seine-et-Oise), 1864).
"Setter.
Patinated bronze and marble base.
Presents loss of one side.
Measurements: 18 x 40,5 x 14 cm (bronze); 4,5 x 43 x 16 cm (base).
Christopher Fratin was an outstanding French sculptor of animalistic style and one of the first French sculptors to represent animals in bronze. He studied drawing with Pioche in Metz and later worked in Paris in the studio of Théodore Géricault. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1831 to 1842 and from 1850 to 1862, as well as at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Fratin never signed his bronzes, but used a stamp showing his last name in capital letters. Today, Fratin's sculpture is on permanent display in the Louvre, the museums of Metz, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nîmes and at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The Georg Eisler Archive in Vienna also exhibits works by Fratin.