Bronze Sculpture St Michael Slaying the Dragon by Emmanuel Fremiet, 1824-1910

Emmanuel Frémiet was born in Paris, France in 1824 and was brought into an upper middle-class family that had very close ties to the world of art. His family was filled with great artists and this included his Cousin Sophie who married a famous sculptor called Francois Rude. Emmanuel’s mother was also an accomplished artist who constantly encouraged him and brought him up into the world of art. At the age of five, he was already was receiving formal training in art in a private school. The start at a young age meant he was able to be accepted at the spectacular Ecole des Arts Decoratifs School at the age of sixteen. Throughout this period he learned everything he needed to then become employed by Werner as his head lithographer within a year, whose duties were to prepare drawings of both animals and men. After a long period of convincing by Sophie and Emmanuel, Francois Rude took Emmanuel as a pupil in his studio to further his learning in modeling and sculpture work. Throughout his young life, he spent a lot of time in zoological gardens and participated in dissections of any animals which had passed away during this time. By the age of seven, he had been exposed to a wide range of different wild animals. To further Emmanuel’s path in art, he was appointed the successor of Antoine Louis Barye as Professor of Drawing after Antoine’s death in 1875. With this new position and like many other great sculptors, he spent a lot of time studying and drawing at the morgue and even went to various embalmers across Paris. This was all of his training to give him the exact measurements and to be able to reproduce the muscle and bone structure of the many men and animals that he witnessed. His first sculpture was exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1843 when he was nineteen and he continued to exhibit his magnificent sculptures for the rest of his life at the Salon. He was even awarded various medals and awards from many of his pieces. As he began with the bronze sculptures, he made many small animal bronzes with very fine detail which are nowadays highly sought after by collectors and museums alike. There were many sculptors during this time that crafted pieces in which showed a cruel nature, but Emmanuel was known for the soft and gentle pieces of work which often were amusing. At the age of twenty-five, he was to receive more commissions than any other sculptor before or during his time. It became near impossible to be able to walk the streets without seeing one of Emmanuel’s many smaller bronze sculptures. This amazing sculptor continued crafting works, but also proceeded to train new sculptors, taking on near twenty pupils each time. Unfortunately, this great sculptor passed away in 1910.