Pompon « Coq Dormant »

Francois Pompon (1855-1933)
Pompon was born in Saulieu in Burgundy, France, the son of a furniture maker. At the age of 15, he joined a funeral director in Dijon, where he learned the basics of sculpting. In the evenings he visited l’Ecole des Beaux Arts. Five years later he left for Paris, where he also worked at a funeral director in Montparnasse during the day and visited l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in the evening. During his training he met the sculptor of animal figures Pierre-Louis Rouillard, which may have been the source of inspiration for the work for which he would become famous much later. Only from 1919 onwards did his work attract more interest. He sold a stone sculpture of a turtledove to the Musée de Luxembourg, and two years later three plaster animal figures to the Musée de Grenoble. It was only when he was 67 years old that his big breakthrough came with the exhibition of l’Ours blanc in plaster at the Salon des artistes Français. Successful exhibitions followed in Tokyo and Osaka, and the now famous polar bear was made in marble. The almost 300 works that Pompon left to the French state upon his death were eventually exhibited in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon.

This statue is 13 cm high.