* Mêne Mare and Foal {1881} Geelong [SC]

Mêne, Pierre-Jules (1810-79; French)
Mare and Foal (c.1860)
Bronze, 30 x 49.5 x 23 cm 
Purchased 1881
Geelong Gallery (1943.7; gift of the NGV, 1943)

This bronze, signed “P.J.Mene,” was purchased from the International Exhibition held in Melbourne in 1881, together with * Mêne The Hawker {1881} Loc? [SC]. Both works were de-accessioned during the early 1940s purge of 19th-century sculpture from the Melbourne collection, the other work being sold at auction.

Bénézit notes that another statuette by Mêne of a mare and her foal was sold at auction in Chartres in 1973.

Refs.

AR 1881, p.54 (under “Metal Works”); not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905

The Geelong Gallery’s online catalogue includes the photograph and details shown above; many thanks to Geoffrey Edwards for his assistance in clarifying the work’s history (email correspondence, March 2020). This sculpture is also listed in NGV 1923, cat.VIII.21

For the bronze sold in Chartres, 29 Oct.1973, for FRF 22,300, see Bénézit 9, pp.760-61