Jean-Alexandre Joseph Falguière

JEAN-ALEXANDRE JOSEPH FALGUÈRE (France 1831-1900).
Diana. Art Nouveau patinated bronze bust.
Signed A. Falguiére.
On a shaped rouge grotto marble base.
Foundry mark from Thiebault Freres.
Measurements: 58 x 38 x 28 cm.
Diana is portrayed with a waning moon that adorns her head. Along with the bow and arrow, the moon is an attribute of the Roman goddess (the Greek Artemis), the goddess of the hunt being a lunar deity. The moon is also an emblem of chastity.
The French sculptor and painter Jean-Alexandre Joseph Falguière was born in Toulouse in 1831. He was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris from 1859-1864 and was inspired by the idiom of the Renaissance. Already in 1859 he won the Prix de Rome and he was considered by his contemporaries during the 1870s as one of ten major French sculptors. Falguiere was awarded the medal of honor at the Paris Salon in 1868 and was appointed Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1878. In 1882 Falguière became a member of the Institut de France (Académie des Beaux-Arts) where he also took on a professorship.
Falguiere exhibited frequently at Paris Salons from 1863 through 1899. His lifetime output included more than thirty monuments, including commission for The Triumph of the Revolution which surmounts the Arc de Triomphe, at least fifty portrait busts as well as a large series of female figures. More of his sculptures are to be seen at Musee D’Orsay.
Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century was an important impetus behind Art Nouveau and one that establishes the movement’s modernism. Industrial production was, at that point, widespread, and yet the decorative arts were increasingly dominated by poorly made objects imitating earlier periods. The practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and produce genuinely modern design.