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Anton Van Wouw (1862-1945)


*AFTER ANTON VAN WOUW (SOUTH AFRICAN, 1862-1945) ‘The bushman hunter’ signed ‘A VAN-WOUW-’ (to base behind right foot) bronze 47.5 x 20 x 25cm (18 11/16 x 7 7/8 x 9 13/16in).

Provenance: Purchased in Johannesburg by the present owner, 1960s. Private collection, United States.
Literature: University of Pretoria, Anton van Wouw: en die van Wouwhuis, (Pretoria, 1981), another edition illustrated p. 27. A.E. Duffey, Anton van Wouw: The Smaller Works, (Pretoria, 2008), another edition illustrated pp. 36-38. The bushman hunter is an extremely fine example of van Wouw’s peerless skill in rendering the finest of details, such as the folds of skin on the hunter’s back and the curls in his hair. The figure is one of the most popular of all van Wouw’s smaller works. Duffey opines: “One already sees with these early smaller sculptures how van Wouw, with his sterling technique and acute observational abilities, portrayed his subjects in the finest detail.....without detrim t to the monumentality of the composition as a whole. The quality of the casting, which the founders G. Massa and G. Nisini of Rome did for him during this period, was never surpassed and doubtlessly contributed to the high quality of these smaller works.” The model for this small sculpture was a Bushman called Korhaan, who stayed for a year with van Wouw as a servant and model. Unused to clothing, he is said to have gone about his duties in the nude. Following his stay with van Wouw, Korhaan was taken to America by his next employer. There he was exhibited as a human rarity and eventually found his way into Barnum and Bailey’s circus, where he worked for more than thirty years.
Bibliography: A.E. Duffey, Anton van Wouw: The Smaller Works, (Pretoria, 2008).
Cast by Nelli, From a model by Felipe Moratilla, Circa 1870 Holding his catch in a net, reaching down to pick up a crab hiding below a rock, the naturalistically-cast base inscribed F e Moratilla/Roma and Fonderia Nelli Roma, on original two-sectioned portoro marble pedestal, with oval top, concave sides and stepped base The figure: 53in. (134.6cm.) high, The pedestal: 29in. (73.6cm.) high (2) NOTES The depiction of the fisherboy in nineteenth century sculpture dates back to 1831 when, in a departure from the prevailing Neoclassic mode dominant for several decades, the sculptor Fran‡ois Rude (d. 1855) exhibited his plaster version of the Neapolitan fisherboy at the Salon. Rude's sculpture represented an unheroic, sentimental subject that corresponded to those depicted in the Italian genre paintings of Leopold Robert, and prompted the critic Edmund Gosse to observe later: modern sculpture dates from 1833, when Fran‡ois Rude exhibited his young Neapolitan fisherboy at the Salon. This was the first attempt to present the human body as it exists before our eyes. The success of Rude's work inspired other sculptors to treat this same theme and variations of the fisherboy were produced by Francisque Duret (1833), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1859) and Vincenzo Gemito (1876), among others. This full-length standing portrait by the little-seen Spanish sculptor, Felipe Moratilla, is an unusual and refreshing departure from the more regular seated or kneeling pose adopted by the latter artists. In the sensitive depiction of a young boy gathering shellfish and crabs, superlative in its detail, it is also a fine example of harmony between sculptor and founder, the latter in this case being the Roman firm of Nelli, who in the later decades of the nineteenth century edited works by such sculptors as Anton van Wouw and Alfred Gilbert.

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