Art Deco Cast Iron Fireback, Allegorical Harvest Nude, Foundry Stern, circa 1950
Cast iron fireback in modernist style depicting a seated nude woman with a scythe and sheaf of wheat. Stern foundry mark, signed M. Quellier. W. 59.5 × D. 3.5 × H. 49.5 cm. French work, circa 1950.
PRODUCT DETAILS
| Dimensions en CM | 59.5 x 49.5 x 3.5 cm |
|---|---|
| Dimensions en INCH | 23.43 x 19.49 x 1.38 inch |
| Période | 1940–1950 |
| Style | Modernism |
| Matériaux | Bronze |
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
This powerful cast iron fireback depicts a seated nude woman in the modernist allegorical tradition — a figure of the harvest, identified by her attributes of a scythe and a great sheaf of wheat arcing behind her in a bold, graphic curve. The composition is rendered in high relief with the simplified, muscular modelling characteristic of French figurative sculpture of the interwar and early postwar decades: forms are robust and essential rather than academic, the texture of the cast iron lending the figure an archaic, almost monumental gravity.
The piece bears the stamp of the Fonderie Stern, the distinguished Parisian foundry whose mark appears on several important firebacks of this period — including works by Robert Lucas, whose owl fireback shares the same provenance. The fireback also carries what appears to be the signature of M. Quellier, an attribution that, pending further archival research, associates the design with an identifiable artistic personality working within the Stern atelier’s orbit in mid-century France.
The iconographic programme — nude female figure, scythe, and wheat — draws on an ancient allegorical tradition reaching from classical antiquity through the Renaissance and into the vernacular decorative arts: the figure simultaneously invokes Ceres, goddess of the harvest, and the broader theme of the fertility of the earth. In the context of the French postwar period, such imagery carried renewed resonance, connecting the decorative interior to the cycles of agricultural renewal. The bold, slightly stylised rendering places this firmly in the modernist current rather than any historicist revival.
Measuring fifty-nine and a half centimetres wide by nearly fifty centimetres tall, this is a fireback of substantial presence, designed to cover the back of a generous hearth and to be read from across the room. It is in good condition for cast iron of this age, with an even surface and well-preserved relief detail throughout.
SIMILAR SELECTIONS
