Mathurin MOREAU (1822–1912): Allegorical figure representing spring. Terracotta. Signed on the base: ‘moreau/math***’. Height: 91 cm. Missing parts and damage Mathurin Moreau, originally from Dijon, trained alongside his brothers Hippolyte and Auguste in the workshop of his father, Jean-Baptiste Moreau (1797–1855). In 1841, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied under Jules Ramey (1796–1852) and Augustin Dumont (1801–1884). He won the Second Grand Prix de Rome in 1842 and began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1848 onwards. From 1849 to 1879, Moreau collaborated with the Val d’Osne art foundry, of which he became one of the directors. His brilliant career earned him several medals and awards and led to numerous official commissions, which he executed in an academic style favouring allegories and genre scenes, celebrating feminine grace. Moreau exhibited the bronze figure representing Spring at the 1863 Salon (no. 2499). Bibliography: S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’École française au dix-neuvième siècle, Vol. III, pp. 496–502.