Emmanuel Frémiet

Emmanuel Frémiet (December 6, 1824 - 1910, in Paris, France) was a French sculptor. He is famous for his sculpture of Joan of Arc in Paris (and its "sister" statue in Philadelphia) and the monument to Ferdinand de Lesseps in Suez.

He was a nephew and pupil of Rude and chiefly devoted himself to animal sculpture and to equestrian statues in armour. His earliest work was in scientific lithography (osteology), and for a while he served in times of adversity in the gruesome office of painter to the Morgue. In 1843 he sent to the Salon a study of a Gazelle, and after that date worked prolificly. His "Wounded Bear" and "Wounded Dog" were produced in 1850, and the Luxembourg Museum at once secured this striking example of his work.

In the 1850s, Frémiet produced various Napoleonic works. In 1853, Frémiet, "the leading sculptor of animals in his day" exhibited bronze sculptures of Emperor Napoleon III's basset hounds at the Paris Salon." [http://www.bronze-gallery.com/sculptors/item.cfm?itemID=67&sculptorID=22 19th century bronze sculpture of 2 Basset Hounds by Emmanuel Fremiet] ," "The Bronze Gallery", 2007. Retrieved 30 March, 2007.] Soon afterwards, from 1855 to 1859 Frémiet was engaged on a series of military statuettes for Napoleon III. He produced his equestrian statue of Napoleon I in 1868, and of Louis d'Orlans of 1869 (at the Château de Pierrefonds) and in 1874 the first equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, erected in the Place des Pyramides, Paris; this he afterwards (1889) replaced with another and still finer version. During this period he also executed "Pan and the bear cubs", also acquired by the Luxembourg Museum and now in the Musée d'Orsay.

In the meanwhile he had exhibited his masterly "Gorilla Carrying off a Woman" which won him a medal of honour at the Salon of 1887. Although praised in its time, this work now evokes ridicule from some observers for its depiction of a gorilla abducting a nude woman, presumably with the intention of raping her - something not totally alien to actual gorilla behaviour, but orangutans, especially, have been recorded attempting to abduct female humans. Accordingly, this act has caught the public's imagination, as witnessed by the repeated popularity of the "King Kong" theme.

Of the same character, and even more remarkable, is his "Ourang-Outangs" and "Borneo Savage" of 1895, a commission from the Paris Museum of Natural History. Frémiet also executed the statue of St Michael for the summit of the spire of the Eglise St Michel, and the equestrian statue of Velasquez for the Jardin de l'Infante at the Louvre. He became a member of the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts in 1892, and succeeded Barye as professor of animal drawing at the Natural History Museum of Paris.

References

*1911

External links

* [http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=175 Emmanuel Frémiet] at the Art Renewal Center
* [http://www.insecula.org/contact/A005795_oeuvre_1.html Emmanuel Fremiet] at Insecula (it may be necessary to close an advertising banner to view the page)
* [http://www.bronze-gallery.com/sculptors/artist.cfm?sculptorID=22/ Biography and bronze sculptures by Emmanuel Fremiet]
* [http://stereotypeandsociety.typepad.com/photos/visual_history/apewomanamnh.html American Museum of Natural History]