Pierre-Jules Mêne (25 March 1810 – 20 May 1879) was a French sculptor and ''

animalier An animalier (, ) is an artist, mainly from the 19th century, who specializes in, or is known for, skill in the realistic portrayal of animals. "Animal painter" is the more general term for earlier artists. Although the work may be in any genre ...

''. He is considered one of the pioneers of animal sculpture in the nineteenth century.

Early life

Mêne was born on 25 March 1810 in Paris, France. As a teenager he worked for his father, a metal turner. By 1837 he was casting his bronze sculptures in his own

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

.Mackay, James, The Animaliers, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1973

Career

Mêne produced a number of animal sculptures, mainly of domestic animals including horses,

cows Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

and bulls, sheep and goats which were in vogue during the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

. He was one of a school of French ''animalières'' which also included

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals ( animalière). She also made sculpture in a realist style. Her paintings include '' Ploughing in the Nivernais'', fi ...

, Paul-Edouard Delabrierre,

Pierre Louis Rouillard Pierre Louis Rouillard (Paris, 16 January 1820 – Paris, 2 June 1881) was a French sculptor known for his sculptures of animals. He was one of a "school of French '' animalières''", which also included Pierre-Jules Mêne, Antoine-Louis Barye, ...

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, B ...

, his son

Alfred Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

, son-in-law Auguste Caïn and

François Pompon François Pompon (9 May 1855 – 6 May 1933) was a French sculptor and animalier. Pompon made his Salon debut in 1879, exhibiting a statue of Victor Hugo's Cosette (from ''Les Misérables''). He was a pioneer of modern stylized animalier scu ...

. His work was first shown in London by

Ernest Gambart Jean Joseph Ernest Theodore Gambart (12 October 1814 – 12 April 1902) was a Belgian-born English art publisher and dealer who dominated the London art world in the middle of the nineteenth century. Life and career Gambart was born in Kortrijk, ...

in 1849. Mêne specialized in small

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

figures which explains why none of his works exist as public

statuary A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

. His work was a popular success with the

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

class and many editions of each sculpture were made, often to decorate private homes. The quality of these works is high, comparable to Barye's. Mêne enjoyed a longer period of success and celebrity than his contemporaries. He is considered to have been ''the''

lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

expert of his time. The lost-wax casting method is sometimes referred to as the ''cire perdue'' method.

Copies, forgeries and reproductions

Because Mêne was so prolific and because so many editions of his works were made, his work is sometimes undervalued in the current market, and

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

and reproductions of his works abound. However, original pieces cast during his lifetime continue to bring good prices at auction.

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n foundries are known to have copied Mêne's work. These castings can be recognized by the appearance of a small plaque, inscribed in

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

, most often found on the underside of the base of the sculpture. After Mène's death in 1879, the Susse Freres foundry acquired the rights to reproduce his models and produced posthumous proofs marked "Susse foundeur éditeur, Paris".

Death and legacy

Mêne died on 20 May 1879 in Paris, France. He is remembered as one of the finest, and certainly the most prolific, animalier sculptors of all time.

Notes

There are no known photographs or portraits of Mêne.

Gallery

Mene-1.jpg, Miniature bronze of horses by Mêne, c. 1850 Mene-6.jpg, P. J. Mêne signature Mene-5.jpg, Underside of an antique bronze by Mêne, c. 1850. Note the hand-cut bronze square nuts that were used during the mid-to-late 19th century.

Bibliography

*''

Catalogue raisonné A ''catalogue raisonné'' (or critical catalogue) is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified ...

of Pierre-Jules Mêne'' by Michel Poletti and Alain Richarme (Paris, 1998). Catalogues 240 models with a history of editions from 1838 to 1933; biography; context of life and work in Second Empire Paris (in French).

References

External links

Bronze sculpture by Pierre Jules Mene
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mene, Pierre Jules 1810 births 1879 deaths 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French male artists