Charles Raphaël Peyre

(1872 – 1949)

French Art Deco

Silvered Bronze Sculptural Group

Circa 1925

Art Deco silvered bronze sculptural group with 2 female putti figures reclining together in an embrace, surrounded by flowers and filigree. Sculpture has a beautiful silver finish, and rests on the original rouge marble base. Signed on the right front “Raphael Peyre”; and foundry mark “B.L. Paris” with “Cire Perdue” (lost wax) in an oval cartouche in the back of the sculpture.

Dimensions:

Height: 13 inches       Width: 26 inches       Depth: 6.5 inches       Weight: 51 pounds *

Charles Raphaël Peyre (French, 1872 – 1949)

This impressive sculptural group was carved by the fashionable French sculptor Charles Raphaël Peyre, who trained under Alexandre Falguière and Antonin Mercié, two of the leading sculptors of the 19th century. Peyre exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, of which he was a member from 1900, winning numerous awards (Bénézit, op. cit., vol. 10, p. 828). The dazzling combination of rouge marble and silvered bronze in the present group, reflect the taste for polychrome sculpture at the time Peyre was working, and recall aspects of the Art Nouveau movement.

RELATED LITERATURE
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintures sculptures dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un group d'écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris, 1999.

*The piece is very heavy, crating recommended for shipment.