Virgile Morey

VIRGILE MOREY (France, active 1883-1895).
Amphora "Le Jour".
Patinated pewter.
With circular marble base with some chips, with metal plate on the front.
Bibliography: Philippe DAHHAN, Étains 1900, 200 Sculpteurs de la Belle Époque, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2000, reproduced p. 300, fig. 897.
Weight: 1,000 g. (without base).
Measurements: 20 x 9 x 9 cm.(amphora). 1.5 H. and 10.5, diameter (base).

This elegant silver-plated pewter amphora, from the Art Nouveau period, sits on a marble base. Its body is decorated in relief with an allegorical scene representing the Day: a woman surrounded by profuse vegetal ornaments and flowers.

French sculptor Virgile Morey, a pupil of Hippolyte Moreau, was a versatile artist who exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1883 to 1895. Although he specialized in monumental sculpture and busts (such as that of Joan of Arc), he also devoted part of his production to the creation of small art objects in pewter and other alloys, a genre to which this piece belongs.