“roaring lioness”, Georges Gardet

Beautiful lioness stepping on a tree, roaring. Gracious and vigorous. Natural movement. Signed on the base for the artist George Gardet. Foundry mark of Siot in Paris. A quality sculpture.

Size: H 33 cm x W 46 cm – the base is W 31cm x D 18 cm

French school of the beginning of the 20th century.

Gardet is known as the worthy successor of Barye. He was a regular at the ‘Jardin des Plantes” in Paris, where he could see the wild animals up close and study their anatomy.

The Siot foundry had a good reputation at the end of the 19th century. It considered itself to be a direct competitor of Barbedienne, the equal level of quality.

Lit: Georges Gardet  is the son of the sculptor Joseph Gardet and the brother of the sculptor Joseph-Antoine Gardet. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the workshops of Aimé Millet and Emmanuel Frémiet. He is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Society of French Artists. Georges Gardet participates in the Salon de Paris at the age of twenty and won his first success in 1891 with “Drama in the desert”. He receives many orders from wealthy clients for “portraits” of their pets or to decorate their garden or home. He creates plasters often translated in bronze as well as marbles. Some of his works will be replicated in biscuits at the Sèvres manufactory. Georges Gardet became an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1900. He made the two marble groups of lions with child decorating the Alexandre III bridge in Paris. He is considered one of the greatest artists of the French school of animal sculptors.