EMMANUEL FONTAINE (Commercy, France, 1856-1935) "Soldier". Bronze sculpture. Signed E. Fontaine.

EMMANUEL FONTAINE (Commercy, France, 1856-1935)

"Soldier".

Bronze sculpture.

Signed E. Fontaine.

Size: 67 x 36 x 27 cm (with base).

Emmanuel Fontaine, is a French sculptor.

Active in the Montparnasse district, he was a pupil of François Jouffroy, Alexandre Falguière, Antonin Mercié and Louis Noël at the École des beaux-arts de Paris. He exhibited medallions and busts at the Paris Salon from 1877 to 1882. His sculptures received different mentions over the years, the most important being: an honourable mention in 1887, a third class medal in 1893, a second class medal in 1896, a silver medal in 1900, and a first class medal in 1904.

He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1910 and was classified out of competition in 1922.

The bronze statue of his Monument to Jacques Boucher de Perthes, erected in the Place du Pilori in Abbeville in 1907 and unveiled in June 1908, was demolished by the German occupiers during the Second World War.



Prisca Hazebrouck preserves in the work The Reclining Lovers, a bronze burial located in the cemetery of the Abbeville Chapel ("the most astonishing monument in the cemetery") and representing "lovers holding hands", side by side, drawn by Emmanuel Fontaine with expressive and peaceful features: "A barely sketched smile hovers on the lips of the young woman who turns her head slightly towards her husband". If it is established that the concession was bought in 1866 by the Abbevillois Adolphe Masse, the total absence of any mention of the burial for this site, the absence of any inscription on the burial, make it a monument where beauty is allied with mystery.