Dancer with Torches - Agathon LÉONARD (1841–1923)

A rare sculpture made in bronze with a nuanced light brown patina
Signed on the backside "A. Léonard Sclp"
Cast by Susse Frères (with founder stamp)
Stamped "M" (foundry reference letter)

France
circa 1905
height 61,7 cm

A porcelain biscuit model is reproduced in "Agathon Léonard, Le geste Art nouveau", Ingelore Böstge, exposition Roubaix 2003, Somogy éditions d'art, p.48.

Biography:
Léonard Agathon Van Weydeveldt, said Agathon Léonard (1841-1923) was a sculptor of Belgian origin naturalized French. After studying art at the Lille Academy of Fine Arts and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Agathon Léonard settled in Paris for a long time, where after having exhibited at the Salon of 1868, he joined the Society of French artists in 1887, then to the National Society of Fine Arts in 1897. Very involved in the artistic movement of the Art Nouveau style, he exhibited many pieces (medallions, bronze statuettes and ceramics) finely worked.

Following an order from the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, dating from 1898, Agathon Léonard exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris his famous table centerpiece "Game of the scarf" in porcelain biscuit, composed of fifteen statuettes representing dancers with pleated dresses reminiscent of Loïe Fuller's choreographies or Neo-Greek dancers with Delos tunics by Fortuny (two torch-lit dancers, dancer with a daisy, a piping dancer, a dancer raising her skirt, a cymbal dancer, a dancer singing, four dancers with a scarf).

The success of Agathon Léonard's group was breathtaking and the statuettes were sold in two sizes. In 1901, the artist presented the same figures, cast by the famous Parisian founder Susse Frères. Made in gilded bronze, chryselephantine (bronze for clothes, ivory for the flesh) or in silvered bronze, this new version confirmed the success of the statuettes, some of which were mounted in electric lamp, the bulb being precisely hidden in the scarf.