Beautiful Gilt Bronze Statue of an Angora cat by Thomas François Cartier
A lifelike sculpture by one of France’s best ‘Animalier’ sculptor’s!
The attitude is pure cat and even more so pure angora!
In the 19th century, the cat was the domestic animal par excellence. It took its place at the heart of bourgeois homes, just as it reigned supreme in the homes of peasants, where its role was undoubtedly more useful than pleasant… Painters and sculptors often drew inspiration from it, and met with great success. Poets too, such as Baudelaire, Apollinaire and many others….
Thomas François Cartier was a French animal sculptor and illustrator.
He was born on February 21, 1879 in Marseille.
A student of Georges Gardet and Victor Peter, he specialized in animal sculpture.
He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1904 and received several medals of which a gold medal in 1927.
During the First World War, he became an illustrator and produced numerous postcards for anti-German propaganda and to support the ‘poilus’.
After the war, he settled in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye and designed many war memorials.
He lived at 6 rue Desaix in Paris and died on April 26, 1936 in Saint-Vallier.