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signed and dated: P.J. MÊNE. 1865.

bronze, orange-brown patina

CATALOGUE NOTE

Mêne's group of a courting Arab mare and stallion, known today as L'Accolade, was first exhibited in red wax with a thin black patina at the Salon of 1852 (no.1479), entitled Tachiani and Nedjébé, chevaux arabes. The following year a bronze version was exhibited (no.1440) and in 1855, at the Exposition Universelle, the wax was re-submitted alongside two of his other works and resulted in him receiving a medal (no.4493).
Modelled at his studio on the rue du Faubourg-du-Temple and listed as no.27 in his catalogue, L'Accolade was to become one of Mêne's most celebrated works and was cast in three sizes, the present model being an example of the largest. Later, both the Susse foundry and the Colebrookdale and Falkirk foundries in Britain edited the model. Its success explains Mêne's adaptation of the horses to appear as separate works, Tachiani known as Cheval Libre (no.42 in his catalogue) and Nedjébé was altered to become both Jument arabe avec harnachement (no.36) and Cheval de spahi au piquet (no.44).
Mêne moved his studio to an hôtel on the rue de l'Entrepôt in 1857, which became a well-known meeting place for sculptors, painters and musicians. He was made a knight of the Legion d'Honneur on 2nd July 1861, the same year he was awarded the first class medal for the second time in his life. Upon his death, much of the contents of his studio passed to his son-in-law, the well-known animalier sculptor Auguste-Nicholas Cain (1822-1894), whose sons Georges and Henri donated the original wax model of L'Accolade to the state in 1898. It is now in the Louvre (RF1205).

RELATED LITERATURE
Lami vol.3,p.427-30; Payne p.304; Horswell pp.157, 162-4, 166; Kjellberg pp.469-86;Cadet p.224, 226-7; Sculpture Française II, vol.2, p.491