Four Neoclassical Bronze Figures of the Seasons by Étienne A. Stella

18229: Four Neoclassical Bronze Figures of the Seasons by Étienne A. Stella
By Stella, Étienne Alexandre (French, d. 1892)
French, late 19th century
Height 96cm, width 55cm, depth 46cm

This striking set of four patinated bronzes personifies the Four Seasons as classical women; each paired with an infant and raised on a circular moulded base. Conceived on a substantial scale at some 96cm high, the figures carry a deep brown patina that catches the light along the drapery and softens the modelling of the flesh.

Each woman is composed in the Neoclassical taste, wrapped in loosely girded classical dress that falls in deep folds, and identified by the attributes of her season. Spring holds a pair of doves to her breast, a flower-laden child beside her; Summer raises a wine cup while her young companion grips a jug, in reference to the grape harvest; Autumn carries a curved pruning knife, an infant stretching up towards her; and Winter pulls her mantle close against the cold, the child at her feet sheltered within its folds. Throughout the set, the crisp chasing of hair, foliage and attributes is set against the smooth polished flesh, and each group is animated by a gentle contrapposto, the women turning towards the children so that the four read as a single family of the seasons.

The personification of the Seasons as female figures with attributes has a long lineage in European art, reaching back to antiquity, and saw renewed favour in French sculpture of the later nineteenth century. Stella specialised in allegorical and genre bronzes of this type, and his Seasons, modelled as mother-and-child groups, are among his best-known works; they appear on the market chiefly as single figures, and only rarely as a complete set of four such as the present group. A comparable model by Stella was offered at Christie's, lot 324, 17th March 2011. One figure is signed 'Stella' to the base.
$ 112,500