Animalier sculptures by Pierre Jules Mene (1810 - 1879)
Pierre-Jules Mene was born in Paris on March 25, 1810 , the son of a prosperous metal-turner. His father trained him in metal-working techniques and the boy quickly put them together with his own natural talent for drawing and began creating small sculptures. The young Mene never attended any of the well-known schools and seems to have been largely self-taught as an artist, though he received some training from sculptor Rene Compaire. After his marriage at age 22, Mene, like many of the other famous 19th century sculptors, including Barye, Dalou, and Rodin, began his career as an ornamiste , making ornamental models for porcelain manufacturers, creating clock decorations, and doing some small commercial bronzes. Always an astute businessman, in 1837 Mene established the first of what would be a series of foundries to cast his sculptures. The following year, he made his debut at the Paris Salon with a piece called Dog and Fox . Two years later, he showed several pieces there, including Horse Attacked by a Wolf . From that point on, he regularly exhibited at the Salon, eventually winning four awards: a 2nd class medal in 1848, a first-class in 1852 and 1861, and a third class in 1855. He was extremely popular in England as well as France , winning medals at the London Exhibitions of 1855 and 1861. One English review in 1851 praised him “for the perfection in modelling the figures of animals and for the truth and beauty of his representations”. In 1861, his reputation was secured by his induction into the Legion d'Honneur. To some extent, the road to his success had been cleared for him by his friend and fellow sculptor, Antoine-Louis Barye. Fourteen years older, Barye had had to struggle for both critical and public success when he began exhibiting his naturalistic animals in the 1820s and early 1830s. The term les animaliers was originally conceived by critics as a slur on Barye's work which departed from classical and academic norms. But Mene rapidly became the most successful and popular animalier of his time; art expert James Mackay suggests, “Mene is perhaps, after Barye, the most widely known of the Animaliers and the sculptor whose work, more than any others, set the standard for the Animalier school”. Mene's work captured the more delicate side of nature, most often concerning itself with domestic animals in tranquility and specializing in horses and dogs. Like another extremely popular animalier , Rosa Bonheur, Mene tended to work in the juste milieu , an artistic method which blended romantic and naturalistic elements while retaining some traditional conventions, thus rendering the work more palatable to conservative tastes. Scholar Jeremy Cooper points out, “Mene's message was refreshingly simple and direct when the rest of the arts were at a low ebb in terms of aesthetic sensitivity.” In addition, Mene's early training in metal-working made him conversant with all aspects of foundry work, enabling him to turn out large editions of his pieces at his own foundries while ensuring that the models and casts were kept in such excellent condition throughout that the last edition was as sharp and detailed as the first. Mackay declares: . . his autograph work is outstanding for the delicacy and sensitivity of the modelling and the extremely meticulous after work. This is evident in the amount of fine detail and the skill with which finely chiselled lines may be seen in Mene's autograph bronzes. Mene issued his own catalogues, featuring casts from among the more than 150 subjects he modelled and eventually selling thousands of small statues. Yet another reason for his popularity was his personality. Mene was extremely out-going and convivial. His home became a gathering place for painters, musicians, and fellow sculptors, making him well-known and liked throughout the artistic circles of Paris . His personality was such that he could mix easily with intellectuals in a social situation and yet be equally comfortable donning a leather apron and working alongside his foundry employees. Toward the end of his life, Mene taught his son-in-law, Auguste Cain, who was also an animalier , how to manage his foundries. Subsequently, Cain continued to cast Mene's work for twelve years after his death, turning out the sort of flawless pieces upon which his father-in-law and mentor had always insisted. In 1892, when Cain died, the last of Mene's foundries was closed and the remainder of his models sold to the Susse Freres foundry which continued to cast Mene's statues with the foundry seal impressed into them well into the twentieth century. Today, examples of Mene's work reside in venues around the world, including museums such as the Ashmolean, the Louvre, the Metropolitan, and the R.W. Norton Art Gallery.
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