First exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1861, Moigniez’s group of Merino Sheep is a highly detailed representation of nature. The model is particularly interesting in its contrast between each member of the flock, the ram standing at the highest point with his proud foot firmly paced on the rock, the other sheep situated proportionally below. A complex cast, it is perhaps somewhat over-chiseled with extensive cold tooling completed to the surfaces, including the incising of hairs & wrinkles in the skin to toe sheep, hammered texturing of the naturalistic base & filing of surfaces that is all too visible in the translucent only mildly patinated bronze surface. Nonetheless, a fine grouping & an infrequent find on the open market. JULES MOIGNIEZ French “Animalier” sculptor Jules Moigniez was born at Senlis, Oise, France on the 28th of May in 1835. His father, a metal gilder, bought a foundry in 1857 in which to cast his son’s sculptures, giving him a significant advantage over his peers both in terms of cost & control. The quality of the work from this foundry is widely acknowledged as being superior in quality & patination. The breadth of patination & their willingness to experiment is evident in their work, including multi-tone chemical patinas, silvered-bronze, gilded patinas as well as the use of very light translucent bronze hues that are particularly unforgiving of foundry flaws. Most works were cast using the lost-wax method & are always chiseled & chased with great skill. It is perhaps in light of this total control over production that his works have been criticized as being “overly chiseled” & as being complicated with excessive amounts of detail. This is particularly so with his bird subjects, often complete with a variety of extensive foliage in the base. His passion for studies of birds resulted in some of the finest & most highly developed models of the 19th century, a lifelong interest that was likely born of his study under Paul Comoléra. There are great similarities between the models of the two sculptors, particularly in the handling of feathers & feet; these are exquisitely rendered by both sculptors, with the models by Jules being a development on the earlier work of his tutor. His first debut was at the age of twenty at the Exposition Universelle in Paris with a plaster model of a Pointer Seizing a Pheasant (1855). He ultimately would exhibit thirty models at Salon between 1859 through 1892 & received a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1862. English & American collectors were particularly interested in his work & many of his game bird subjects were purchased by audiences outside of France, aided at least in part by presenting selected works at the London International Exhibition of 1862. These were important markets for him as an artist; by some estimates more than half of his lifetime production was acquired by collectors in England & Scotland. Around 1869, Jules Moigniez was stricken with an illness that he would never recover
