F. Barbedienne Pair of Neo-Greek wall lamps, attributed...

F. Barbedienne Pair of Neo-Greek wall lamps, attributed to F. Barbedienne France Circa 1880 Bronze with two patinas Height: 53 cm; Width: 32 cm; Depth: 41 cm Pair of Greek Revival sconces in bronze with two patinas. Shaft in the form of a curved plant stem, topped by a Greek vase, decorated in relief with lion's heads from which five arms of light escape, linked by fine gilded chains. The whole is topped by a patinated bronze heron in the round. Biography: Born in 1810, died in Paris in 1892, Ferdinand Barbedienne created and directed one of the most important art foundries of the 19th century. In addition to his own production, he worked for such renowned sculptors as Barrias, Clésinger and Carrier-Belleuse. Their illustrated catalogs featured a wide range of products, including busts, ornamental sculpture (pendulums, candelabras, sconces, etc.), sometimes even life-size, and bronzes for furniture. His work was always highly acclaimed, and he was constantly honored by contemporary critics, who compared him to "a prince of industry and the king of bronze" at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. In fact, the Exposition catalog did not hesitate to consider Barbedienne the emblematic figure of nineteenth-century bronzeworkers. His fame continued to spread over the years, and at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, critics thanked Barbedienne for serving as a master to other bronzemakers, through the consistently exemplary quality of his bronzes. Bibliography : L'univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978. Catalog de l'Exposition Universelle, les Beaux-Arts et les Arts décoratifs, t. I: l'Art moderne, Paris, 1878. Catalog de l'Exposition Universelle, les Beaux-Arts et les Arts décoratifs, Paris, 1889.