Large Art Nouveau terracotta vase with allegory of a spring, signed Aristide De Ranieri and numbered on the back 227

Large Art Nouveau Terracotta Vase
allegory at the spring
numbered on the back 227 and signed Aristide De Ranieri
Biography
Aristide De Ranieri comes from a dynasty of Tuscan marble sculptors. His father, Angiolo De Ranieri from Querceta (1834-1911), a sculptor trained in the Pietrasanta and Carrara workshops, and his brothers Ermemegildo (1862-1919) and Ferruccio (1867-1957), decorated the main monuments in the towns and cemeteries of Viareggio and Pietrasanta in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His nephews Dino De Ranieri, son of Ermenegildo, and Lelio De Ranieri (1890-1967), son of Ferruccio, continued the family tradition until the mid-20th century. Even today, the Studio d'Arte De Ranieri run by Sirio De Ranieri, Aristide's grand-nephew, and his son Dino, the last descendant of the De Ranieri dynasty (sculptors), continues to train sculptors in Pietrasanta.
Trained in the family workshop in Pietrasanta, he was sent to Paris by his father to open a branch of the Angiolo De Ranieri e figli company at 10 rue de Perceval in the 14th arrondissement in 1893.
Alongside his activities as French representative of the family business, Aristide De Ranieri set up a sculpture and ceramics workshop, where he created his own works in the Art Nouveau style then in full ascendancy. A member of the Société des artistes français, he was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salons, where he received an honorable mention in 1899.
The success of his creations with Parisian connoisseurs and art dealers soon led to the production of ceramics becoming Aristide De Ranieri's main activity, until the outbreak of war in 1914.
Too old to be drafted, he continued his activities, but soon encountered difficulties in selling his creations to a population more preoccupied with wartime necessities than with beautifying their surroundings. He had to interrupt his production and, in order to make a living, began offering patriotic drawings to Parisian newspapers and magazines such as La Baïonnette. Throughout this period, his signature can also be found on numerous caricatures distributed in the form of postcards used as anti-German propaganda material.
After the end of the war, Aristide De Ranieri tried to resume his activity as a sculptor and ceramist, but soon realized that the Art Nouveau style for which he had become famous was completely out of fashion. No longer favored by a public now more attracted by new, simpler artistic expressions, he decided to close his studio for good. Like many sculptors of the time, he embarked on a new career in academic statuary, working mainly on government commissions as an ornamentalist for war memorials and commemorative works.
His last known work, a medallion commemorating the Atlantic crossing by aviators Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte, dates from 1929.
Aristide De Ranieri was lost from that date onwards. It is not known whether he remained in France or retired to his native Tuscany. The date and place of his death remain unknown.

Ref: I9D59AXBTC