Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1930s.
Our sculpture is a variant on one in the Museum Denys Puech has a near identical
bronze.
It seems that Denys Puech worked on the composition of this virgin and child for quite a while, and made different models of it. His research started with a commission for a church in Rodez.
Please let me know if you'd like to know more, I'd be delighted to email you information about this from the French National Museums database.
1881 and 1883 saw Puech's first successes, when he twice won the second prize in the prix de Rome contest, He at last won first prize in 1884, with Wounded Mezentius.
From then on he received several official commissions from the French Third Republic, He founded a museum of fine art in Rodez in 1903 (now the Musée Denys-Puech). The building, inaugurated in 1910, was designed by him in conjunction with the architect Boyer to best show off his sculptures.
He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1905, and made a knight of the Légion d'honneur on 17 January 1908. On 13 May 1908, he married princess Anina Gagarine Stourdza (1 June 1865 – 14 April 1918), a painter, of whom he sculpted a statue holding a painter's palette in 1914. He was Director of the French Academy in Rome from 1921 to 1933. Our bronze dates to his second sejourn there. Although I cannot be certain, I believe this bronze to be a unique piece.
Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1930s.
Modern french & continental pictures selected by a former french auction house expert
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Denys Puech (1854-1942) Prix De Rome Sculptor Madonna and Child Antique Bronze Sculpture. Variant of a Figure in the Denys Puech Museum!
