Very Fine Marble Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912)

Carrara marble sculpture of a woman fisherwoman, signed Mathurin MOREAU.

Sculpture in very good condition.
The sculpture stands on a rotating marble base.

There is a discreet and invisible restoration on the rotating base.

Height with base: 79 cm.
Height without base: 72.5 cm.

Mathurin Moreau;
born in Dijon on November 18, 1822, and died in Paris on February 14, 1912, was a French sculptor renowned for his decorative sculptures.
Mathurin Moreau, who owes his first name to his paternal grandfather, a locksmith in Dijon, was born at 7, rue Monge to the marriage of sculptor Jean Baptiste Louis Josephe Moreau and Anne Marianne Richer, originally from Besançon where his father, Mathieu Richer, was also a sculptor1. His brothers Hippolyte and Auguste were also sculptors.
In 1841, he was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he studied with Jules Ramet and Auguste Dumont. He won the second Prix de Rome in 1842 with Diodème enlevant le Palladium. He made his debut at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1848, where he won acclaim for his statue L'Élégie.
He was awarded a second-class medal at the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris, followed by a first-class medal in 1878. In 1897, he was awarded a medal of honor at the Salon, of which he became a member of the jury during the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He exhibited a white marble bust of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar (after his Carrara marble and bronze bust of 1875, entitled Ishmael, candeur).
Between 1849 and 1879, Mathurin Moreau collaborated with the Fonderie d'Art du Val and, as a shareholder, became one of the company's directors. But, as Pierre Kjellberg observes, "the reign of Napoleon III was also the reign of fireplace trimmings, which until then had been extremely rare. The artist also supplied models to the Compagnie des bronzes de Bruxelles and exhibited at the Union centrale des beaux-arts appliqués à l'industrie in the 1880s.
In 1880, the artist was awarded a prize in the competition for the erection of an allegorical monument to La Défense de Paris at the Courbevoie traffic circle (originally the La Defense district, but awarded to Louis Ernest Barrias).
From 1879 until his death, Mathurin Moreau was elected mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris - created in 1860 after the annexation of the communes of Belleville and La Villette - where rue Priestley was renamed avenue Mathurin Moreau by decree of July 16, 1912.
He was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1865 and promoted to Officer of the same order in 1885.
He died on February 14, 1912 at his home at 15, passage Montenegro in Paris, and is buried in the Lilas cemetery.

Ref: YIKHOSM0B4