Emmanuel FRÉMIET (Montrouge, 1824 - Paris, 1910)... Lot 27

Emmanuel FRÉMIET (Montrouge, 1824 - Paris, 1910) "Louis d'Orléans", c. 1870 Bronze with brown patina signed on an oval-shaped terrace. Inscription under the base: "Pièces 749". Height. 78.5 Length. 36, Width. 19 cm. Bronze proof of the equestrian statue of "Louis d'Orléans" by Émmanuel Frémiet created for the courtyard of the Château de Pierrefonds around 1870. Bibliography: - Catherine CHEVILLOT, Emmanuel Frémiet, 1824-1910, La main et le multiple, cat. exp., Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 5 November 1988 - 16 January 1989, Grenoble, Musée, 23 February 1989 - 30 April 1989, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Musée de Grenoble, 1988, model illustrated under number 95 a, S 237, bearing the same inscription /749, provenance Frémiet edition. The illustrated copy is incomplete, unlike ours. To be distinguished from the Cat. 95 b with rectangular terrace in Thiébaut cast iron. - Pierre KJELLBERG, Les bronzes du XIXe siècle, dictionnaire des sculpteurs, Paris, éditions de l'amateur, 1987, p. 327. This equestrian statue "of a medieval man" commissioned in 1869 was presented at the 1870 Salon under the title "Louis d'Orléans". The full-size model has been enthroned since 1875 in the courtyard of the Château de Pierrefonds, which was built in the 14th century by Louis d'Orléans and restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc, the author of the preparatory drawing for this monument. Brother of Charles VI the madman and great-grandfather of Francis I, Louis d'Orléans was assassinated in 1407, leading to the war between Armagnacs and Burgundians. The rediscovery of Pierrefonds is part of the medieval effervescence of the 19th century, embodied by the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris. Also a restorer of the castle, Viollet-le-Duc sent the sculptor Frémiet a sketch of the statue he imagined for the entrance to his grand project. Proof of the sculptor's boundless admiration, Frémiet confessed on this subject: "I have read and reread the works of Violl