Duchesse Adèle d'Affry called 'Marcello'
(Fribourg 1836-1879 Castellamare)

Le Chef Abyssin

Exbited at the Paris Salon on 1870 (marble, now in Musée d'Orsay)
Terracotta, pink patina
Signed 'Marcello'
Cast ca. 1875
H. 66,7cm

Marcello the pseudonym of Duchesse Adèle d'Affry was one of the foremost sculptors working in Paris during the Second Empire and the early years of the Third Republic. In 1870 she exhibited one of her most successful works, ‘Le Chef Abyssin’ in bronze and white marble at the Salon. She exhibited again in 1893 at the Exposition Universelle in Vienna where it was awarded a medal. The model proved very popular and it was edited in bronze and marble. The marble exhibition piece is in the Musée d’Orsay and a plaster version in the Kunstmuseum in Bern. The present terracotta example is the only one known in this material.

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