After Albert Gilbert

After ALBERT GILBERT (England, 1854 - 1934).
Manufacture of MARCEL GUILLEMARD (1886-1932).
"Faun" and "Nymph".
Pair of bookends.
Patinated bronze.
With signature "A. Gilbert" on the side and back.
Measurements: 19 x 11,5 x 12,5 cm.

Pair of sculptural bookends in bronze, based on mythological effigies of the British sculptor Albert Gilbert. They are a nymph and a faun with a sensual and devious appearance.

Alfred Gilbert was an English sculptor and goldsmith. He played a central role in the New Sculpture, an artistic movement that revamped sculpture in Britain in the late 19th century. Alfred Gilbert also enriched sculpture with the thematic and stylistic features of the Art Nouveau movement. He studied in Paris, at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, where he was a student of Jules Cavelier. He later studied in Rome and Florence (Italy), where Renaissance art profoundly influenced his future work, particularly the great Florentine Mannerist bronzes. He also worked in the workshop of the sculptor Joseph Boehm and was influenced by his assistant, Édouard Lanteri (1848-1917). Gilbert joined the Royal Academy in London in 1887 and became a full member in 1892. In 1889 he won the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition Universelle and was made a member of the Royal Victorian Order. Gilbert traveled to Rome in 1923 and, three years later, returned to England to complete the Clarence Monument, this time under royal patronage. He created the Queen Alexandra Monument, unveiled in London in 1932. On this occasion, Gilbert was knighted and re-elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy. During his later years, he was acclaimed in the highest echelons of British artistic society before his death in 1934.

Marcel Joseph Henri Guillemard was a French decorator and designer. He was the first designer of the Primavera atelier of the Printemps department store.