Antique Bronze Fallow Deer Sculpture, Silvered Figure on Gilt Bronze Base — French Animalier School, Late 19th Century

The animalier school that formed around Antoine-Louis Barye in Paris in the 1830s changed what bronze animals could be. Before Barye, animal sculpture was decorative — graceful, symmetrical, unthreatening. The animaliers went to the Jardin des Plantes with sketchbooks and came back with something different: animals caught in the specific truth of their own movement, on naturalistic terrain bases that placed them in the world rather than on a plinth. The fallow deer — alert, mid-stride, head raised — was a recurring subject, the animal's particular combination of lightness and wariness making it one of the more demanding tests of a sculptor's observation.

This figure is French, late nineteenth century, in the animalier tradition, cast in silvered bronze on a gilt bronze naturalistic base. The deer is modelled mid-stride, one foreleg raised, the head turned slightly upward with the ears fanned forward — the posture of an animal that has caught a sound it cannot yet place. The body is worked in broad, confident planes, the musculature reading clearly through the flanks and shoulders without being overstated; the antlers, still in velvet, are cast with the soft, slightly flattened form of early growth rather than the hard tines of the mature rack. Note how the terrain base — rocks, ground cover, the stub of a branch — is modelled with the same attention as the figure itself, the detail that separates an animalier cast made for a serious audience from one made for a mantelpiece market. The two-tone finish — silvered figure against gilt base — was a deliberate choice by the foundry, the contrast giving the small piece a visual presence beyond its size.

It arrives professionally packed and fully insured. All duties and import charges are our responsibility — you pay nothing beyond the listed price. Returns are accepted within 30 days.

DETAILS:
Size: Height 13 cm (5.1 in) · Length 14.7 cm (5.8 in) · Base 14.7 × 6 cm (5.8 × 2.4 in) — roughly the size of a large book standing upright
Material: silvered bronze figure; gilt bronze naturalistic terrain base
Style/Period: French animalier school, late 19th century
Weight: 878 g (1.9 lb)
Shipping: professionally packed, fully insured, worldwide — all import duties paid by us, nothing to settle on delivery
Condition: very good; silvering sound with age-consistent variation; gilt base bright and stable; no chips or repairs
Returns: accepted within 30 days

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Notify us within 30 days of delivery if you wish to return a piece. No reason is required. You pay return shipping for a change-of-mind return.

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