Workshop of Barthélémy Prieur (Berzieux 1536 - 1611 Paris) French, early 17th century

Sotheby's, London, 5 July 2000, lot 22 

This model forms part of a group which includes a Man Standing on his Hands and a Man Carrying a Child, an example of which is in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California (acc. no. 17.8). Anthony Radcliffe noted the presence of the Walking Man and an Acrobat in the Inventory of Andre Le Notre and attributed this series of small bronzes to the French school of the early seventeenth century. Jestaz had linked the group to a French or Franco-Flemish workshop.  Now generally accepted as being by Barthélémy Prieur and his workshop, other examples of this figure are in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe and one was sold in these rooms on 15 December 1999. 

RELATED LITERATURE
H.R. Weihrauch, Europaische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Brunswick, 1967;
B. Jestaz, 'Travaux recents sur les bronzes, II, renaissance septentrionale et Baroque', Revue de l'Art, 1970, no.9, pp.78ff. no.112;
A. Radcliffe, The Rogers and Cotton bequest, Plymouth and City Museum and Art Gallery, exh. cat., London, 1979 no. 3.