Charming Bronze Statue of Mother Cat and Kittens by E Frémiet

A Charming Bronze Groupe Statue of a Mother Cat with her two kittens.
Resting on the carpet the Cat is seen nursing her two kittens in an attitude very familiar to cat owners!

The two kittens are huddled against one another and sweetly nursing. Stretched out the mother appears very proud and very content!
Signed by Emmanuel Frémiet on the Terrace, this little bronze is very sweet.

Frémiet was born in Paris, he was the nephew and pupil of Sophie Frémiet, and later he became a pupil of her husband François Rude.

He is more known for his 1874 Statue if Joan Of Arc in Paris, of which two copies are found in Philadelphia and in Portland, but was very prolific in the animal sculpture genre.
He exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1843 at the very young age of 19 with a Gazelle statue and was highly praised for the beauty of his work.
By the mid 1850 he was considered as part of the Animaliers Sculptor Movement of which Antoine louis Barye was considered the ‘Father’ or Leader.
The name of animalier which had at first been given to Barye in 1831 as a derisive badge had by then become a proud affiliation.
Emmanuel Frémiet went on to produce several statues for Napoleon III.
During this period he executed “Pan and the bear cubs”, also acquired by the Luxembourg Museum and now in the Musée d’Orsay.
He became a member of the Académie Francaise in 1892 and an honorary member of the Royal Academy in 1904.

Our little statue is signed on the terrace.

France 19th Century c.H: 3"W: 8"Reference number: R-411