Antoine Etex (1808-1888), sculptor of the... - Lot 254 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay

Antoine Etex (1808-1888), sculptor of the Romantic school, he produced a very large number of busts and monuments. Autograph manuscript. [1863]. 2 pp. in-4 (draft, very full pages). Vibrant speech delivered at the funeral of the neo-classical sculptor Denis Foyatier (Bussières, Loire 1793-1863). "One more death, one less soldier of that valiant army of intellectual labour of 1830 []. It was with his knife that the small peasant Denys Foyatier, born in 1793, began his education as a sculptor by inspiration and on his own. To tell you here, in front of this coffin, about the deprivations and anxieties of the poor little shepherd sculptor during the first forty years of his life would be too long []. Each of us had sent to the Universal Exhibition [of 1855] what we thought was the best we could do. For me, as for all the other sincere artists, there was only one work in sculpture that stood out from the ordinary qualities, and this work alone deserved the great medal of honor of the sculpture section [Spartacus de Foyatier] []".