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Un buste en bronze de Nemausa (fontaine de Nîmes) à Honolulu


14/3/05 - Question Danny Gamage (Honololu, Hawaii):

My mother is making the final transition in life and it is nice to talk with her about things. She has a sculpture that was given to her many years ago. It has a lamp attached to it's wooden base and there seems to be a lot of green shading (verdigris) on it. I know it's not a special Pradier piece. It is the bust of a woman with leaves on her head and with a hint of a dress on her shoulders. If you could tell us more about it or give us the email address of someone who could it would make for great conversation with my mother.


14/3/05 - Réponse D. Siler:

Without pictures of your sculpture I can only guess at what it might be. Could you send me one, or possibly several, taken from different angles? Also, I need to know the following:

  1. How tall is the sculpture in inches or cm., not including the wooden base?
  2. Is the name "Pradier" inscribed on it? If so, where, and does it include the initial "J" ?
  3. Is there any other writing on the sculpture or under the base? Any numbers or foundry marks on it?
  4. Is the sculpture in bronze? If not, what is it made of and is it hollow inside?
  5. Is the woman looking straight ahead, down, or to the left or right?
  6. Are there any other features you could describe?
  7. Do you know how long it has been in the family and where it was before that?

If you can answer these questions and also send some pictures, I may be able to identify the work and tell you more about it.


25/3/05 - Réponse Danny Gamage:

I made attempts in sending you pictures of the sculpture and failed. So let me answer your questions:

  1. Height is 11 inches [28 cm] without the base.
  2. The name J. PRADIER is inscribed on the front above the wooden base, on a bronze supporting piece for the sculpture.
  3. There are no other markings we can see, however when looking under the base it seems as though it were originally just a sculpture, not a lamp. What kind of marks would we look for?
  4. Yes, my wife states it is of bronze, and I believe it is hollow.
  5. The woman is looking down and a little to her left. Plus she has a little necklace tight around her neck.
  6. She has leaves on her head and part of a dress or wrap around her bust.
  7. My mother may have acquired the sculpture in the 1930's or 40's. We know nothing else about it.


17/2/05 - Réponse D. Siler:

Without photos of your sculpture, it's difficult to know what it might be. Please try again to send some. In the meantime, I am attaching one here of a work which was recently put on auction in New York. Is it the same as or similar to yours?



Click to enlarge



1/4/05 - Réponse Danny Gamage:

As far as I can tell it's the same sculpture. Attached are 5 pictures. The lampost in the background is attached to the wooden base.

 

                       


Click on photos to enlarge them


4/4/05 - Réponse D. Siler:

Your sculpture is indeed the same as the one I sent you a picture of and which was put on auction at Christies, New York City, last January. It seems to be a less refined version and may be a surmoulage, i.e. cast from the mold of another bronze version and not from a mold of the original plaster model. Its patina seems to have suffered from exposure to the elements. Perhaps it stood outside in a garden for several years before the lamp was added.

What is very interesting about this work is that it is derived from one of the five monumental statues sculpted by Pradier for the famous fountain erected in Nîmes in southern France. The fountain's central statue, a standing female figure symbolizing the city of Nîmes, is surrounded by four other seated figures. Two of these are nude male figures symbolizing the Rhône and Gardon rivers. The other two are scantily-clad female figures symbolizing two local springs whose Latin names are Ura and Nemausa. Your bust is derived from the statue of Nemausa. Four or five years before the fountain was inaugurated in 1851, small reductions of the statues were already in circulation. Larger copies were later cast in bronze, such as two of Ura recently located in Rio de Janeiro. Some reductions of the female figures differ from the original marble statues in that they are fully draped. We don't know for sure if these versions were made by Pradier himself or if their elegant robes were added later by the editors who produced them. We do know, however, that Pradier was in the habit of creating two versions of some of his works, one "dressed" and the other "undressed".

The figure of Nemausa symbolizes the natural spring around which the roman colony of Nîmes grew up. She has nenuphar leaves in her hair and holds a mirror in her right hand. Her counterpart, Ura, holds a lyre and wears a wreath on her head. Only reductions or copies representing the entire figures from head to foot were known before the bust derived from Nemausa was marketed last January in New York. Your example of that same bust is therefore very rare. My article on the Forum Pradier website entitled "Les enfants nomades de la fontaine de Nîmes" ("The 'nomad' children of the fountain of Nîmes") focuses on the reductions and copies of the marble figures and includes numerous pictures which you can compare with your sculpture. Sorry I don't have an English version but to get the jist of it you might try running it through one of the machine translators available on the internet.

Several other works derived from the Nîmes figures have recently come to light. There will be a new article about them shortly and I will let you know as soon as it is online. I hope these few remarks are helpful. If you have any further questions I will be happy to answer them if I can.


6/4/05 - Réponse Danny Gamage:

Thank you for all your help, the information you sent is incredible. My mother passed away Monday morning. We shared with her the information and she was elated, clenched her fist and stated: "I knew it!" That was beautiful to see.

Now we would like your advice on how to clean the sculpture up. The reason it is so green is because of all the salt air. I believe it can look as nice as the picture you sent. And the lamp pole and wire are easy to remove. What is your advice?


15/4/05 - Réponse D. Siler:

I was so sorry to learn that your mother passed away. Please accept my deepest condoleances. How fortunate it was that the information I sent you only a few hours before got there in time to be shared with her.

You ask how you should go about cleaning the sculpture. I am no expert on the matter and it can be a very delicate operation. Before doing anything, it's important to know if the verdigris coating is not, in fact, intentional. Your version of the work did not necessarily look like the one which was put on the market in New York. The coating may have been applied deliberately at the very beginning to give it an "antique" appearance. With regard to the lamp, you might consider removing it and the wire but I think the wood base should stay. It seems well adapted to the sculpture and could be revarnished. If you do want to clean the sculpture you should first try to get some advice from a local specialist. Here's the internet address of an article I ran across about a restorer who works in Honolulu:

http://starbulletin.com/2003/07/14/news/story4.html.

If he can't help he can probably direct you to someone else. Otherwise, here are a few other internet addresses about cleaning bronze:

http://www.lotussculpture.com/bronze_sculpture_bronze_care.htm

http://www.aaabronzestatues.com/bronze_information.asp#pagetop

http://www.americanbronze.com/CaringforBronze.htm

You can find many, many other addresses by searching in Google on the words « cleaning bronze statues ».

Once again, all my condoleances to you and to your family.



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