“Galloping horse” Cire Perdue Bronze by Jean Clerc (1908-1933)

Bronze horse, monogram “J.C.” on the base and foundry stamp "Pastori cire perdue" circa 1930.

1?457 / 5?000
Jean Clerc (1908-1933) is a legendary figure for the people of Vaud, whose precocious genius was recognized during his lifetime, when a sudden illness took the young man at the age of 25. As a child, he revealed an imperious talent, took drawing lessons from the painter Charles Clément, and trained as a sculptor with Casimir Reymond. In Mon-Repos (Lausanne), he shared a studio with the painter Richard Hartmann from 1929. He then worked there alone until 1933. Jean Clerc was in contact with various important artists and art lovers of his time, including the writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, who wrote a powerful eulogy for the young sculptor after his death. From this short life entirely devoted to art, we remember that he stayed in Paris between 1932 and 1933 and that his great inspirations were Rodin, Pierre Puget and Charles Despiau. He created an original and vibrant body of work in terracotta, bronze and wax. His first exhibition, posthumous, took place in 1934 at the Arlaud Museum in Lausanne, followed by a memorial publication (Edition de Mont-Repos, Lausanne) bringing together testimonies of this short life, notably by Casimir Reymond, Charles Clément, Gustave Roud, Richard Hartmann and Ramuz… A second booklet was published by an “Association of Friends of Jean Clerc” in 1943, on the occasion of a tribute exhibition organized at the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, for the 10th anniversary of the artist’s death.