Superb large bronze figure of the French middle ages poet Francois Villon by Spanish born sculptor Jean Francois Marie Etcheto (1853 - 1889) and cast by the celebrated Paris foundry of Thiébaut Freres c.1920. Standing 29½'' tall. Full length figure of a young man in medieval costume, holding a book and quill under one arm, his other hand rests on a short dagger at his waist whilst at his feet is a lute and broken chain. Superb quality casting with very good colour and patina. Large signature for Etcheto in the cast on the plinth and a foundry mark for Thiébaut Freres, Fumiere et Cie (the company name used between 1920-1926) . Excellent condition.
The subject is the French middle ages poet Francois Villon (1431-1463) who was arrested, exiled and imprisoned in Paris for multiple crimes including in 1455 the stabbing in self defence of a priest. One of his best known poems The Ballade of the Hanged Men was apparently written when Villon was in the Cha^telet prison under sentence of death.
Etcheto was commissioned to produce a sculpture of Villon by the Paris town hall in 1879, debuting a plaster model at the 1881 Paris Salon with a bronze being commissioned the following year from the Thiébaut Freres foundry.
Width: 8.5'' (21.5 cm)
Height: 29.5'' (75 cm)
Depth: 9.5'' (24 cm)
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Internal Reference: 36277
Antique Number: SA1103200
Dateline of this antique is 1920
Height is 75cm (29.5inches)
Width is 21.5cm (8.5inches)
Depth is 24cm (9.4inches)
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