Auguste Louis Mathurin MOREAU (1834-1917) The Girl with the Cricket

Bronze with brown patina, signed "aug Moreau."
Cast during the artist's lifetime.
Circa 1910

Dimensions:
Height 65 cm
Width 35 cm
Depth 28 cm

This delicate bronze sculpture by Auguste Moreau, a renowned 19th-century sculptor, depicts a scene full of freshness and poetry: a young girl, barefoot, sitting on a tree stump, holding a basket of fruit while making a gesture of surprise. Her shifty gaze and her hand resting on her shoulder betray the fleeting emotion provoked by a cricket that has come to disturb her harvest. This expressive composition captures a lively and spontaneous moment, blending youthful grace and understated humor.

With this work entitled "The Girl with the Cricket," Moreau illustrates his taste for rural subjects and childlike scenes imbued with naturalism. The supple sculpting of the body, the delicacy of the features, and the elegant gestures testify to the artist's virtuosity. The rich and even brown patina reinforces the soft sensuality of the forms while highlighting the relief of the details: the curly hair, the texture of the trunk, the bunches of grapes in the basket.

Far from a simple decorative sculpture, this work embodies Moreau's tender and humanist outlook on childhood and nature. It is part of the French Romantic tradition while affirming a decorative aesthetic sought after by 19th-century connoisseurs.

From a private French collection, this piece is in excellent condition, without any accidents or restorations, with its original patina preserved. It is a fine example of late-century charm sculpture, where technique and emotion harmoniously blend.




Biography Auguste Louis Mathurin MOREAU (1834-1917):
Auguste Louis Mathurin MOREAU, known as Auguste MOREAU, belonged to the Moreau family, a dynasty of sculptors from the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Joseph Moreau and the younger brother of sculptors Hippolyte Moreau and Mathurin Moreau.

While his parents ran a café-guinguette, Le Salon de Mars, in Saint-Saulve, young Auguste didn't stand out from the village children and was an undistinguished student. He met Auguste Meurice, a decorative painter from Valenciennes who frequented his parents' establishment and became friends with him. Through this association, he met several students at the Valenciennes Academy of Painting and enrolled at the Academy at around 16. He attended classes under Julien Poitier. He painted portraits of his entourage and villagers, which he was able to sell, initially at affordable prices and then increasingly better, and obtained a few commissions for religious subjects for the region's churches. He improved his skills through practice and became a sought-after local painter. From 1872, he submitted canvases to the Salon des Arts Valenciennois and was elected a member of the Société d'agriculture, sciences et arts de Valenciennes. In 1873, he submitted his first work to the Paris Salon; he subsequently exhibited there almost every year but did not win any prizes. Until 1880, he signed his paintings "Auguste Moreau," then adding his wife's name "Deschanvres" to avoid confusion with namesakes. In 1902, he received a major commission for a series of portraits of the archbishops of Cambrai. He was named a papal knight in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, likely in recognition of the numerous portraits he painted of dignitaries of the Catholic Church in the North. A genre and portrait painter, Auguste Moreau-Deschanvres never left his native region, where he found all his inspiration.
Shortly after his death, from March 23 to April 6, 1913, 150 paintings and drawings were exhibited in his studio and put up for sale.