Mephistopheles - Jean-Jacques FEUCHERE (1807-1852)

"Mephistopheles"
also known as "Satan, The fallen angel"

A bronze sculpture with a nuanced brown patina
Signed " J Feuchère 1833 "
old edition cast

France
mid 19th century

height 34 cm
width 14 cm
depth 18 cm

A similar model is exhibited in the Louvre museum in Paris (inv. RF 4220).
The plaster model was shown at the Salon of 1834 and a bronze cast at the Salon the following year. Another cast is now preserved in the Paris museum of Romantic Life.

Biography :
Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-1852) was a French sculptor and medalist. Son of the carver Jacques-François Feuchère, Jean-Jacques Feuchère began by working for goldsmiths and bronze manufacturers. He used to say that he was the pupil of Jean-Pierre Cortot and Jules Ramey, professors at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, an establishment which he did not however attend. He began his carrer at the Salon of 1831 with two sculptures "Judith" and "David showing the head of Goliath" which were very noticed. He won a second class medal in 1834. In 1846 Feuchère was awarded Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

In 1848, Feuchère took part in the competition for the sculpted figure of the “French Republic” launched by the provisional government. The jury retained his project and he was commissioned to set the marble in 1849 to appear "The Constitution". He completed it in 1852 and was inaugurated on the Place du Palais-Bourbon in 1854 under the name “The Law”. Jean-Jacques Feuchère was also a great art collector and had amassed a considerable collection in his studio in twenty years.