Édouard Drouot

ÉDOUARD DROUOT (Sommevoire, France, 1859 - Paris, France, 1945)
"Arabian Labrador", ca. 1900
Patinated bronze.
Signed on the base: "E. Drouot".
Measurements: 35 x 84 x 20 cm.

Sculptural group in patinated bronze representing a scene of orientalist inspiration, with an Arab farmer guiding a plow pulled by a camel and a donkey, on which rides a figure covered with tunic and hat. The composition, developed in horizontal format, stands out for the detail of the modeling, the narrative vividness and the careful treatment of the animals, the atalajes and the farm implements. The work is part of the taste for North African and costumbrist themes common in European sculpture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Édouard Drouot was a French sculptor trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a student of Émile Thomas and Mathurin Moreau. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, winning an honorary mention in 1889, a third-class medal in 1892 and an honorary mention at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition. His production includes works in bronze and marble, with special attention to allegorical, mythological, animalistic and orientalist scenes, characterized by a sense of movement and expressive modeling. His work is represented at the Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, the Musée d'Art Roger-Quilliot in Clermont-Ferrand and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims.