Setdart will tender an interesting set of 19th and 20th century French and Belgian bronzes, an excellent opportunity to include some of the masters of this alloy in our collections.
A debtor of monumental sculpture, bronze has enjoyed the attention of the great European courts since the sixteenth century, making a niche for itself in the most important collections of the old continent. It has played a key role in diplomatic relations between the different monarchies, being suitable as gifts, for example, in gratitude for obtaining favors or, on the contrary, with the desire to obtain them. Their small size has been an advantage for artists and collectors, as they require less metal and their lightness facilitates transportation, characteristics that have boosted their diffusion.
The small-sized bronze was, from its inception, conceived as a collector’s item, destined to adorn the wunderkammer or chambers of wonders of the high nobility, as they reproduced the classical statuary recently discovered in Quattrocento Italy. Such was its success that the bronze makers had to find ways to preserve the original model and be able to cast more than one copy.
The transformation of the bronze industry would come, however, already in the first third of the 19th century in France, with the help of Achille Collas, who patented a machine capable of reproducing smaller scale sculptures, the méchanique réductionand the foundry houses themselves, which would allow the artists to massively propagate their pieces. Examples of this can be found in the pieces of the Belgians Léandre Grandmoulin and Albert Hambresin, whose signatures are accompanied by the signatures of the Fonderie Nationale Des Bronzes and the Compagnie des Bronzes de Bruxelles, respectively.
Of all the artists who began to work with bronze in nineteenth-century France, thanks to the possibilities it offered, Auguste Rodin was the protagonist, who made this shiny metal his hallmark. The pieces of the Parisian, when they are of large format, can reach millionaire figures at auction, which speaks of the high esteem in which the market holds the sculptor, being more modest numbers, although not negligible, those of his small format pieces. To give an example, the same piece that we can see at Setdart, the bust of Suzon, with the same casting marks, went at Christie’s Paris, with an identical estimate, and ended up being auctioned for 30,000 euros. It can also be found in different museums, such as the Musée Rodin or the Brooklyn Museum.
Small format bronze has been and continues to be a safe bet for collectors, being pieces born for art lovers, combining the expressiveness of sculpture and the virtuosity of the miniature.
