Bronze Figurine representing a French Soldier
A grenadier (?) Stands, arms crossed, his helmet at the Minerva lying at his feet. He wears the medal that awards him the knight of the Legion of Honor. His giberne, adorned with a flaming war grenade, is thrown over his shoulder.
Signed on the plinth "Ed Bureau 1861" and "E bureau chisel"
Height: 19 cm (7.5 ") Base: 9 x 9.5 cm (3.5" x 3.75 ")
Similar tests were titled "Prussian Soldier"
Our soldier is more of the defeated Gaul than the victorious Prussian who is decorated with the legion of honor.
The little we know about Édouard Bureau comes down to a sentence from a book Zinc Sculpture in America 1850-1950 where the author, Carol A. Grissom, mentions two Frenchmen, the Achille brothers and Édouard Bureau, who had created their own foundry in Philadelphia in the 1870s. «In the 1870s French-born brothers Achilles and Edouard Bureau ... their own bronze-casting company in Philadelphia»