Gabriel Eugène Coquelin

GABRIEL EUGÈNE COQUELIN (1907-1996).
Bookend, ca. 1930.
Patinated bronze.
Edition Susse Frères.
Wooden base.
Measurements: 17 x 12,5 x 11,5 cm.

Pair of sculptural bookends, representing two figures of orientalist evocation seated on the square of hardwood. One of them plays the lute, the other pretends to be an orator or humble philosopher.

A student of Jules Coutan and Paul Landowski at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Gabriel Coquelin won an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1926, of which he was a member, and exhibited there in 1929 a bust in stone of Nicole Planque. He worked as a sculptor for Hubert Yencesse, René Leleu, Louis Leygue, René Quillivic and Georges Thurotte. His tomb is in the cemetery of Châtillon.

The Susse Frères foundry began casting bronze in 1839 under the direction of Michel Victor Susse and Amédée Susse, who were brothers. They produced ornaments for furniture and clocks, as well as statues. In 1847, they obtained authorization to use the Sauvage reduction process, similar to that invented by Achille Collas, co-founder of the Barbedienne foundry.