Jockey Winner - Isidore BONHEUR (1827-1901)

A rare bronze group with a dark brown patina
Signed on the base "I. Bonheur"
A period cast by "Peyrol" (with the foundry stamp)
Standing on a molded wooden base

France
circa 1880
height of the bronze : 53,5 cm
total height with the base : 62 cm
total length : 68 cm
depth : 24 cm

Biography:
Isidore Jules Bonheur (1827-1901) was a French painter and sculptor. Isidore first received an artistic apprenticeship from his father Raymond and his older sister Rosa, then, in 1827, he entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris. After practicing painting, Bonheur sent a plaster group to the Salon of 1848 an "African rider attacked by a lioness"; he was thus moving towards animal sculpture. His group "Combat of bulls" was noticed at the Salon of 1850.

Isidore Bonheur then composed mainly groups of small animals. He won medals in the Salons of 1865 and 1869, and a gold medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1895.

The art founder François Auguste Hippolyte Peyrol (1856-1929), founded his bronzes for many years.