Art Deco Bronzed Terracotta Sculpture "The Fisherman" by Ugo Cipriani, France

A powerful Art Deco terracotta sculpture with bronzed finish by Italian-French sculptor Ugo Cipriani, depicting a kneeling fisherman braced against the strain of hauling in a heavy net from the sea. The figure is rendered with dynamic, muscular tension — torso twisted, legs planted, arms locked around the taut line — capturing a single frozen moment of physical exertion that was a favored subject of the artist.

The sculpture rests on a naturalistic rocky shoreline base, with the net and cresting wave rendered in low relief at the figure's feet, all raised on a stepped rectangular plinth. Cipriani's modeling combines academic anatomical precision, developed during his training at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, with the streamlined geometry and heroic figuration characteristic of French Art Deco sculpture of the interwar period.

Ugo Cipriani (1887–1960) was born in Florence, the son of sculptor Adolfo Cipriani, and trained at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts before working across marble, terracotta, bronze, and alabaster. In 1935 he relocated to Paris as a political refugee from Mussolini's fascist regime, continuing an active sculptural career there until his death in 1960. His figures of laborers, athletes, and mariners in dynamic poses — often cast in terracotta with a bronzed finish and stamped "Terre Cuite d'Art" — remain sought after examples of French Art Deco sculpture.