A French Second Empire Cast Iron Figural Fountain

A very fine and beautiful French Second Empire cast iron fountain featuring Hebe, cast by the French foundry Barbezat et Cie and stamped on the base of the figure, underneath Hebe’s feet: Barbezat & Cie/Val D’Osne, after a model by the French sculptor Mathurin Moreau. The figure of Hebe, the mythological goddess of youth, shown standing in contrapposto pose, supporting in her right hand an oenochoe (a tall antique pitcher) decorated with anthemion, that is balanced on her shoulder while in her left hand, which rests on her hip, she holds a twig, she wears a floral and foliate headdress, a necklace and diaphanous classical dress above bare feet and stands on a thin circular plinth that rests upon a circular pedestal decorated around the centre with anthemion trophies and acanthus leaves around the circular stepped foot on a plain hexagonal base
Val d’Osne, Haute-Marne, date circa 1860-75
Height of the figure: 135 cm. Height of the base: 90 cm. Overall height: 225 cm.
Literature: “Barbezat & Cie. Maitres de Forges: Ancienne Maison J. P. V. André: Usine au Val d’Osne Hte. Marne” 1880 trade catalogue, pl. 365, no. 45, as well as pl. 367, no. 133, illustrating two images of the exact same female model of Hebe and the supporting pedestal, amongst the foundry’s selection of candelabra.
This large and very attractive figural fountain was cast by the renowned foundry Barbezat et Cie at Val d’Osne in Haute-Marne. It is after a model by the acclaimed French sculptor Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912), who for thirty years, from 1849 up until 1879 was closely associated with the foundry. He not only supplied models for a range of items such as fountains, candelabras and garden statues, but also as a shareholder, acted as one of the firm’s administrators. During this period, the famous foundry changed its name several times and continued to do so after Moreau’s association ended. The figure portrays Hebe, the beautiful Greek goddess of youth (identified with the Roman goddess Juventas), who according to myth was the daughter of Jupiter and Juno and married Hercules after his ascent to Olympus. Hebe was the cup-bearer and general handmaiden of the gods and is often depicted on antique vases bearing a tall wine vessel, known as an oenochoe, as we see here.
The history of Barbezat et Cie dates back to 1855 but it began with Jean Pierre Victor André (1790-1851), whose father Pierre Jérôme André (1760-1817) was a marchand-mercier de fer. Since he could not initially afford a foundry of his own, Jean Pierre Victor André first started contracting work out to the foundries in the Champagne area, east of Paris. In 1835, he established his own iron works in the Val d’Osne, at first specializing in architectural items and then in ornate art castings, which proved cheaper and of a better quality than his competitors. André’s achievements gained him a silver medal at the 1839 Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie Française in Paris, gold medals in 1844 and 1849 and a médaille d’honneur at the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle. These accolades were proudly displayed on the outside of the firm’s showroom in the rue Neuve, Ménilmontant, Paris. In 1855, four years after André’s death, his business was acquired from the latter’s widow by Gustave Henri Barbezat (1818-67) who renamed the concern Barbezat & Cie, and the following year installed a second blast furnace at the foundry so as to cater for an increasing market.
Barbezat, who was born in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland on 29th January 1818, studied under and then worked for André before taking over his business. Like his predecessor, he too gained distinction for his contribution to the arts, for which he was awarded l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur; he also gained critical acclaim for his works of art when they were shown at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1855, at the London International Exhibition of 1862 and again in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1867. A circular portrait medallion of him after a model by Mathurin Moreau includes the date 25th January 1863, coinciding with the year that he installed a new warehouse in Boulevard Voltaire in Paris. In 1858, Barbezat published a substantial trade catalogue titled “Barbezat & Cie. Maitres de Forges: Ancienne Maison J.P.V. André: Usine au Val d’Osne Hte. Marne”, which was reproduced in later years including 1880. It advertised a wide range of castings, from balustrades, columns and chimney pieces to fountains, chairs and statues. As here, some of the models for statues were as easily adapted for use as candelabra as they were garden statuary or fountains.
After Gustave Barbezat’s death in 1867, Barbezat & Cie was acquired by Houille & Cie. Three years later it was restyled as the Société Anonyme des Hauts-Fourneaux & Founderies du Val d’Osne and continued as such up until circa 1930 when it merged with a similarly large French iron foundry Antoine Durenne. Having changed hands in 1969, it is now known as G.H.M. In the same way that Barbezat et Cie was keen to use its own name in conjunction with its predecessor, the same happened when the firm was restyled Houille & Cie and also the Société Anonyme des Hauts-Fourneaux & Founderies du Val d’Osne. Likewise, some of the earlier and more successful models continued to be cast by the various successors.
As noted, the model for Hebe was originally conceived by the sculptor Mathurin Moreau, who gained great renowned for his decorative classical sculptures. Born in Dijon on 18th November 1822, he was the son of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Joseph Moreau (1797-1855) and his wife Anne Marianne née Richer (1795-1883), whose father Mathieu Richer (b. 1763) had also worked as a sculptor. Two of Mathurin’s younger brothers, Hippolyte-François Moreau (1832-1927) and Auguste Moreau (1834-1917), also became successful sculptors. After learning the art of sculpture from his father, in 1841 Mathurin Moreau enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the workshops of Etienne-Jules Ramey (1796-1852) and Auguste-Alexandre Dumont (1801-84). The following year, 1842 saw him winning the runner’s up Prix de Rome with a statue of Diodemus removing the Palladium. He then made his debut at the Paris Salons in 1848, winning acclaim for his statue L’Élégie. In 1855, he won a second-class medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and then a first-class medal in 1878. In 1897, he was awarded a médaille d’honneur and was later appointed a member on the jury at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. After a glittering career, he died at his Paris home in Passage du Montenegro on 14th February 1912 and was buried in the Cimetière des Lilas.
In addition to Hebe, other of his models that were cast by Barbezat and the Val d’Osne foundry include his Négresse and Égyptienne – a pair of statues depicting the ancient female Egyptian and a Kushite royal figures holding aloft a torch, of which castings can be seen for instance in the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal in Porto, at the mausoleum of the American architect Temple Hoyne Buell at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver and outside the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. Other of Moreau’s sculptures that were cast at Val d’Osne include a depiction of the Flower Fairy as well as two series, one representing the Four Seasons and the other the Four Elements. Other notable works by Moreau include Cologne, a limestone sculpture for the facade of the Gare du Nord station, his Nymphe Fluviale, of 1874 for Place du Theâtre-Français, Paris and L'Océanie, a grand scale cast created for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878, which is now in the Courtyard of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. In addition to large scale monuments and sculptures, Moreau’s work was equally successful when adapted to small scale pieces. Among them were the models he provided to the renowned Paris silversmithing firm Christofle et Cie, including a silver statuette La Renommée inscrivant sur une tablette d'or la date de l’Exposition (1866) and a commemorative cup known as L’Education d’Achille (c. 1867), which are now both in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.