Large Cast Iron Fireback with Nude Woman and Horse, Art Deco Style, French circa 1970

The nude woman with a horse is one of the enduring subjects of European decorative sculpture — an image that reaches from the Thracian goddess Epona through Renaissance horsemanship allegories and Romantic bronzes to the bold figurative language of Art Deco, where the human body and the animal form were paired as emblems of vitality, freedom, and the primal compact between civilisation and nature. This large cast iron fireback gives full expression to that tradition, presenting a dynamic composition in which a nude female figure reaches upward toward a rearing horse, the interplay of bodies generating a diagonal energy that animates the entire surface of the plate.

The relief is executed in the confident, stylised manner characteristic of the French decorative foundry in its Art Deco mode: contours simplified into flowing arcs, musculature suggested rather than anatomised, the background textured to create contrast against the projecting figures. At 77 cm wide and 65.5 cm tall, this is a large and imposing piece, commanding presence at the back of any substantial fireplace. The thickness of 6.5 cm speaks to the quality of the casting and the functional seriousness of the object: a fireback of this heft reflects radiant heat effectively while protecting the chimney back from prolonged flame exposure.

The circa 1970 date places this fireback within the productive tradition of French specialist foundries — including firms such as Cornille et Havard, Barthélémy, and their successors — that continued to cast figurative firebacks in the neo-Art Deco manner through the 1960s and 1970s, meeting sustained demand from the French interior market and from collectors of architectural ironwork. The subject, scale, and quality of this piece suggest a foundry with ambition and craft pride.

A significant and imposing decorative fireback, suitable for a large period fireplace. The subject — the nude woman with horse — is both visually arresting and richly connected to the longue durée of European decorative mythology.