Young Girl at the Fountain, France circa 1880

Width of the base : 37 x 30 cm (14 1/2 x 11 3/4 in.)
Numbered on its backside 359/576

Large sculpture made in patinated terracotta, with a servant girl filling her jug at the fountain, which is decorated in the lower part of a lion's head (from which flows water), topped with a grooved and truncated column, on which is wound a five light-flowers plant.

The terracotta pieces almost always bear a model number, and occasionally the edition number or how many pieces were edited, indicating then the importance of production, in this case made in a limited edition.
Originally, the signature of the sculptor never appeared in editions of terracotta. This claim of artists to see their name beside the publisher’s one didn’t appear until the late nineteenth century.

Bibliography :
Les Orientalistes, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs, Stéphane Richemond, Ed. de l’amateur, Paris, 2008, p°61.