Double patina Orientalist bronze - Emmanuel VILLANIS (1858 - 1914)

Double patina bronze sculpture depicting an oriental slave with a turban, signed "Villanis".

Measures 59x35x28cm.

Emmanuel Villanis (Lille 1858-Paris 1914) came from a family of Italian origin. From 1861 his parents returned to Italy to settle in Piedmont; they had fled the war of independence under the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1871 the artist enrolled at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin; here he followed the teaching of the sculptor Odoardo Tabacchi. At the end of his studies his teacher encouraged him to exhibit, his bust Alda for example was presented in Milan in 1881. In 1885 he then moved to Montmartre, the famous Parisian district that he never left again.

Made mainly in bronze, sometimes chryselephantines, his sculptures subtly bear the stamp of Art Nouveau and are often characterized by a deft play of patinas that add further finesse to the line.

Exhibited eleven times at the Salon of French artists between 1886 and 1910, Villanis also participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris and in the 1903 Chicago one.