"Le Voyageur" bronze sculpture French signed E MEISSONIER - probably Jean Louis Ernest Meissonnier (1815-1891), casting mark SIOT-PARIS, numbered 36 Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 47 x 61 x 20 cm Notes: Ernest Meissonnier (1815-1891) was a prominent French painter who was part of the so-called Academic Movement, having achieved his reputation with paintings of military themes and genre scenes. His attention to detail and pursuit of realism allowed him to gain recognition from his peers during his lifetime, and in 1890 he was elected president of the re-founded Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts de France.

Meissonnier's sculptor skills were only recognised after his death, since his sculptural work was produced as a preparatory element to support his paintings, in which the artist modelled the position of the figures he intended to paint, thus rehearsing the interplay of light and shadow that the volumes and shapes produced. For this reason, the works left by Meissonnier consisted essentially of wax models, which were only cast in bronze after his death.

The sculpture “Le Voyageur” is one of Meissonnier’s most celebrated bronzes, where the absent protagonist of the composition is the wind, which forces the knight and his mount to lean forward to face the weather, without losing their determination to continue on their way. The identity of the knight wearing the cape and bicornuate remains uncertain, but it could be Marshal Ney or Napoleon himself.

The present sculpture, signed E Meissonnier, must have been cast around 1895 based on a wax, fabric and leather model created by Meissonnier, currently kept at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/le-voyageur-15446 consulted on 27-11-2024 at 16:39.

As mentioned in https://www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com/produit/le-voyageur-dit-aussi-voyageur-dans-le-vent-marechal-ney-ou-encore-officier-dans-la-tourmente/ an edition of 50 copies was planned, of which probably only 45 would be cast, with the present copy being number 36.