François POMPON (1855-1933) - Lot 40

Lot n° 40
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Estimation :
200000 - 300000 EUR
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Result : 900 000EUR
François POMPON (1855-1933) - Lot 40
François POMPON (1855-1933) Playing tigress (short terrace front and back) Designed between 1922 and 1926; our example was commissioned in 1924, cast by Marcel Valsuani and delivered in February 1926. Bronze with brown patina Signed "POMPON" on the terrace Bears the founder's stamp "Cire PERDUE C. VALSUANI Dimensions: H. 26 x W. 32.2 x D. 13 cm; total length with tail: 59.5 cm A certificate from Mme Liliane Colas, U.F.E. expert, dated July 4, 2025 will be given to the purchaser. SPECIAL BIDDING CONDITIONS - PLEASE CONTACT THE AUCTION HOUSE Provenance : - Galerie Dubly in Lyon, 1926 ; - Hôtel des Ventes de Lyon by Maître Françoise Herment, Maître Alain Millarede and Maître Xavier Genin, April 27, 1971, lot 62; - Lyon private collection, by descent. Related works: - François Pompon (1855-1933), Tigresse jouant (terrasse courte à l'avant et longue à l'arrière), bronze with glossy brown patina, dim. 25.2 x 10.13 x 6.05 cm, inscribed: on the right "POMPON/ CIRE/C.VALSUANI/ PERDUE"; below in pencil "147", provenance: Grande Maison de Blanc, 4 rue Halévy Paris; Musée des Beaux-arts de Dijon, n°inv. 3784 bis (147) ; - François Pompon (1855-1933), Tigresse jouant (terrasse longue à l'avant et à l'arrière), model created in 1922, cast in August 1924, bronze with orange-red brown patina, provenance: commissioned from Galerie Ruhlmann , sold to M Tronchon, 87 cours Gambetta, Lyon, not located; - François Pompon (1855-1933), Tigresse jouant ou donnant un coup de patte (terrasse courte à l'avant et à l'arrière), model created in 1922, cast in August 1925, bronze with orange-red brown patina, signed "POMPON" and bearing the founder's stamp "C. VALSUANI CIRE PERDUE" on the terrace, H. 26 x W. 61x D. 13 cm; provenance: ancienne galerie Saint-Louis, Grenoble 1926; Christie's "20/21 Design" sale November 24, 2014 - lot 13. Related literature: - Robert Rey, François Pompon, "coll. Peintres et Sculpteurs", Crès, 1928, with reproduction of the plaster model, no. 25 and dated 1922 p.17 ; - Pierre Quarré, Catalogue des sculptures du musée des Beaux-arts de Dijon, 1960, n°1011; - Catherine Chevillot, Liliane Colas, Anne Pingeot, François Pompon 1855-1933, cat. Exp. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, October 18, 1994 to January 22, 1995, Paris, Gallimard / Electa, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994, model listed under no. 171, p. 227. Our extremely rare bronze copy of Tigresse jouant corresponds to the one mentioned in the artist's account books, deposited with Galerie Dubly in Lyon in 1926. It is one of only four known proofs of this model depicting a tigress, her right front paw thrown forward in a playful, dynamic gesture. The forms are smooth and uncluttered, all superfluous detail abandoned; the volumes are full, the musculature suggested only by the light gliding over the bronze's patinated surface. This extreme stylization emphasizes the feline grace. No anecdote, no excessive naturalism hinders the beauty of the gesture captured in the instant. Around 1919, Pompon met the famous publisher Adrien Hébrard, who helped lift him from his patrician status to become the true leader of twentieth-century animal sculpture. From the 1880s onwards, Pompon took great pleasure in creating animal subjects, working with extremely simplified forms. In particular, he modeled the small farmyard animals he observed in the Normandy countryside, where he had acquired a house near that of his friend René de Saint-Marceaux. He exhibited his first animal bronze at the Salon of 1892 (Poulet, n°2992). At the end of the Great War, Adrien Hébrard, who was interested in his series of domestic animals, opened his gallery to the first Pompon exhibition. The sculptor entrusted him with a series of fourteen animal models, which he published, according to their contract, between 1921 and 1924, in only three copies. In 1922, François Pompon designed the Tigress model. That same year, he sculpted the work that finally brought him fame at the age of 67, his iconic White Bear. The resounding success of the Bear at the 1922 Salon led to wider distribution of his work. From 1923 onwards, the sculptor entrusted his models to the Valsuani foundry, which Marcel Valsuani took over after the death of his father Claude. The editions were supervised by the sculptor, the finishing touches by himself. While Ours Blanc is characterized by its simplified, smooth, uncluttered forms, representing the very essence of the animal without superfluous details, Tigresse jouant transcends the artist's quest for absolute purity with its long, graceful lines. His reflections on the dimensions of the terrace, as well as on the different inclinations of the t
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