Emmanuel Frémiet

This masterful bronze is cast by one of the leading animalier sculptors of the 19th century, Emmanuel Frémiet. Frémiet pushed the boundaries of the animalier genre, by exploring the relation of animals and humans in his works, which was much inspired by Darwin’s theory On the Origin of Species, published in 1859 and a hot topic of conversation and public debate. It is therefore no surprise that Frémiet submitted his first version of the present subject to the Paris Salon in the same year, where it was rejected. Baudelaire critised Frémiet for seeking sensationalism with his group and condemned the controversial subject. Over two decades later, Frémiet submitted a revised version of the model, titled Gorille enlevant une Femme, which was accepted in the 1887 Salon where it received great praise and success.

Frémiet subsequently made variants on the theme, including his Troglodytes Gorilla Du Gabon for which he received a Medaille d’honneur, and an Orangutan strangling a Native of Borneo that he designed for the museum at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. He also made a model of a Gorilla defeating a Gladiator, of which a terracotta is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London (inv. no. A.8-2017). Few examples of the present model are known; a plaster version is in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden (inv. no. ASN 4794) and a polychromed plaster is in the musée des beaux-arts in Nantes (inv. no. 1656). Another bronze version was formerly in the collection of Jacques Ginepro, Monaco, and sold in his sale in Sotheby’s Paris, 25 May 2022, lot 78.

Frémiet was a pioneer of the emerging Romantic movement, who felt inspired by the work of his contemporary Antoine-Louis Barye and François Rude, under whom he apprenticed. This group displays Frémiet’s talent in conveying animals with convincing physiognomic accuracy. In 1840, Frémiet joined the studio of Jacques-Christophe Werner (1796-1856), who was the appointed painter to the Musée national d’Histoire naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, where Frémiet was able to study animals from life.

The bronze’s composition is lively and displays Frémiet’s thorough technical understanding of casting intricate bronze statues. The gorilla moves assertively, stepping onto a rock base and holding a rock in his proper left hand. The woman struggles and appears helpless in the grasp of the primate - this dynamic suggests Frémiet’s favouritism of Darwin’s theory. The gorilla is wounded by a spear, which indicates Frémiet’s fascination with combat in his animalier groups, which is also seen in The Wounded Bear or in his Orangutan strangling a Native of Borneo.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Chevillot, Emmanuel Frémiet 1824-1910, La main et le multiple, exb. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, 1988, p.103, S 145, cat. 68b; P. Fusco, H.W. Janson (eds.), The Romantics to Rodin: French nineteenth-century sculpture from North American collections, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 276-279, cat. no. 146;

https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/1567597, 4/06/2024; https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1410935/gorilla-defeating-a-gladiator-sculptural-group-emmanuel-fremiet/gorilla-defeating-a-gladiator-sculptural-group-emmanuel-fr%C3%A9miet/, 4/06/2024