Mène, Pierre-Jules
(b Paris, 25 March 1810; d Paris, 21 May 1879).
French sculptor. Having learnt to cast and chase bronze
from his father, who was a metal-turner, he began his career
by executing models for porcelain manufacturers and making
small-scale sculptures for the commercial market. He received
his first professional lessons from the sculptor René
Compaire and augmented these with anatomical studies and
life drawings of animals in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.
From 1838 he regularly exhibited animal sculptures at the
Salon. His statuettes and groups, such as Flemish Cow and
her Calf (wax, 1845; Paris, Mus. d'Orsay), depicted the
animal world with great physical precision. He even made
sculptures of horses, such as Ibrahim, an Arab Horse Brought
from Egypt (exh. Salon 1843), Djinn, Barb Stallion (exh.
Salon 1849) and the Winner of the Derby (exh. Salon 1863).
Mène was distinguished from other animal sculptors
by his well-developed sense of business. He established
his own foundry, where he formed a partnership with his
son-in-law Auguste-Nicolas Cain, also an animal sculptor;
they published a catalogue of their works, which could be
ordered directly from the studio. The wide dissemination
of reproductions of Mène's works ensured his popularity
in France and abroad, especially in England.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lami
J. Cooper: Nineteenth-century Romantic Bronzes: French,
English and American Bronzes, 1830-1915 (London, 1975)
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