Frédéric-Balthazar STOLL (1869-1949) - Prancing Horse

Sculpture in whitened terracotta on a square veined black marble base.
Signed: “Fr. B. STOLL”
Circa 1925
In perfect condition.

Certificate: A certificate from Michel Giraud, CNE Expert, will be issued to the buyer

Remarks: Frédéric-Balthazar Stoll shows very early a genuine talent for drawing and modelling. He settles in Paris in 1890 where he becomes Rodin’s pupil. As a member of the Société des artistes français, he presents each year his work at the Salon. He enlists in the army as soon as the first world war breaks out, is made prisoner in September 1914 and remains captive in Grafenwoehr camp in Bavaria until the armistice. He manages to keep sculpting during this period and creates, among others, a “Chained Giant”, a monumental sculpture initially destined for Grafenwoehr camp’s cemetery and then moved to the national necropolis of French war prisoners in Sarrebourg in 1928. That same year, a special exhibition at the Jeu de Paume displays some fifty marbles and terracottas created during the war as well as some forty marbles, stones and bronzes executed after the war. His work is characterized by the striking power emerging from the depicted motifs and subjects. Such as the “Olympic Games victor”, qualified as “masterpiece” at the Salon d’Automne in 1926. His work and especially this “Prancing horse” is without artifice, and rather shows a mastery in the sobriety of volumes and a sense of balance. The Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris keeps a major piece entitled “Torso of a female athlete”, bought by the State during the 1928 exhibition. Still is also the author of several war memorials, such as the War memorial of French captives in Lucerne his native town.