114 - Pierre-Marie Poisson (1876–1953)

Pierre-Marie Poisson (1876–1953) Little Girl with a Goat Model created around 1923; circa 1923–1925 Bronze with a brown patina tinged with green Signed “P.M. POISSON” and bears the artist’s stamp Bears the foundry’s stamp “CIRE / C. VALSUANI / PERDUE” Numbered “No. 1” H. 24 cm, on a sea-green marble base H. 5 cm From 1893 to 1896, Pierre-Marie Poisson trained in plasterwork at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse before joining Louis-Ernest Barrias’s studio in Paris. Beginning in 1899, he regularly exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français. He created several war memorials, the most famous of which is in Le Havre, as well as numerous “Art Deco” works, notably the Trocadéro Fountain. In 1907, Pierre-Marie Poisson won the Abd-El-Tif Prize, which enabled him to spend two years in Algiers. Upon his return to Paris and until his mobilization during World War I, he spent six months each year in Bou-Saada. During these stays, the sculptor created numerous works featuring young Algerian women as models, whom he depicted veiled and wearing traditional amulets and accessories. Depicting a young girl firmly holding a goat by one horn, our model likely corresponds to *The Little Girl with the Goat*, exhibited at the Salon of the Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1918, at the 1923 exhibition of French Orientalist Painters, or at the Georges Petit Gallery that same year. Related literature: -French Orientalist Painters: 24th Exhibition, Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1923, a copy listed under no. 253; -Stéphane Richemond, *Les Orientalistes: Dictionary of Sculptors, 19th–20th Centuries*, Paris, Les éditions de l’Amateur, 2008, work illustrated on p. 170, pp. 168–175