François Pompon (1855-1933) Foulque Bronze with brown patina Cast by Claude Valsuani in 1925 Signed "POMPON" on the right-hand side of the terrace between the two legs Bears the founder's stamp "CIRE PERDUE C. VALSUANI" and numbered "3" on the back of the terrace Dim. 28.3 cm and terrace 19.3 x 6.5 cm LJ Provenance : - Acquired from the Galerie Saint Pierre in Lyon around 1925; Collection of an amateur from Lyon, then by descent Related literature : -Catherine Chevillot, Liliane Colas, Anne Pingeot, François Pompon 1855-1933, cat. Exp. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 18 October 1994 to 22 January 1995, Paris, Gallimard / Electa, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994, model listed under no. 97, p.203 and p.122 and 123. Other examples listed: -François Pompon, Foulque, n°1, signed "POMPON", bears the Valsuani stamp and n°1, provenance Galerie Saint Pierre, Lyon, public sale in 2024. Our bronze depicting a coot, a bird of the aquatic rallidae family, belongs to the repertoire of small animal subjects that the sculptor François Pompon enjoyed creating by working with extremely simplified forms. He particularly modelled farmyard animals, which he observed in the Normandy countryside, where he had acquired a house near that of his friend René de Saint-Marceau. He exhibited his first animal bronze, the Chicken, at the 1892 Salon (no. 2992). The famous publisher Adrien Hébrard took an interest in his series of domestic animals and in 1919, just after the end of the Great War, presented the first Pompon exhibition. The sculptor entrusted him with a series of fourteen animal models, including one of a moorhen (H. 19 cm), a bird similar to our Foulque. In 1922, the exhibition of the Polar Bear at the Salon gave Pompon a well-deserved reputation and led to a wider distribution of his work. The artist joined forces with the Valsuani foundry and in 1925 launched the production of his Foulque, the model for which he had designed around 1913. Our copy, signed "Pompon", bears the number "3" on the terrace, alongside the founder's stamp, according to a numbering system that corresponds to the contract signed in December 1924 between the sculptor and Alfred Poyet, director of the Galerie Saint Pierre in Lyon. This contract limited the edition to twenty copies. As his account books show, Pompon delivered the first five copies, all numbered, to the gallery in 1925. In his notebook, the first buyer recounts meeting Pompon at the home of the goldsmith and medallist Claudius Linossier in Lyon, then visiting his "tiny studio" on rue Campagne Première in Paris, where he saw him at work. He bought Foulque n°3 from the Galerie Saint-Pierre in 1925.