French school; first third of the 20th century.

French school; first third of the 20th century.
"Fisherman".
Patinated bronze.
Signed. E Martin.
Measurements: 95 x 73 x 50 cm.
Sculpture made in patinated bronze and signed by the artist E. Martin. The piece represents a Neapolitan fisherman boy playing with his dog. In the inferior zone a net, gives name to the title of the work, which stands out for the technical quality and for the verism that the author prints in each detail that conforms the work. An example of this is the animal's fur, or the way in which the stomach of the youngster is contorted due to the posture in which it is found. To this naturalism is added a gesture of great innocence and spontaneity that gives the sculpture an emotional character that transcends the merely technical. A feature that was common during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where childhood took a leading role, until then only anecdotal.
This work also responds to the regionalist trend in which artists seek to reflect the types and customs of their own land, which make it different and unique, thus vindicating their own roots and, above all, the traditions and ways of dressing and behaving of its inhabitants. The costumbrismo of the 19th century was born as a way of interpreting a growing sense of national consciousness, now present in the middle class as it advanced towards social hegemony. To a certain extent, the artists' concern was to deepen the vision of their country through a language, that of painting, that everyone could understand, thus helping the common people to understand the nature and meaning of their nationality, especially as it had manifested itself in the recent past, still alive in the memory of the elders, interpreted in many cases as in the present sculpture from a completely idealized perspective.