Modernist Cast Iron Fireback with Adam and Eve, Apple and Serpent, Signed Stern

Cast in low relief across a rectangular iron ground, this fireback presents the scene of the Garden of Eden: two elongated figures — Adam and Eve — flank the Tree of Knowledge, the serpent coiling through the composition as the central dramatic agent. The figures are rendered with the bold simplification characteristic of mid-twentieth-century French figurative sculpture, their stylised forms animated by the deep shadow-catching quality of the cast iron surface.

The work is signed and edited by the Stern foundry, the distinguished Parisian establishment whose production spanned artistic bronzes, architectural ironwork, and luxury fireplace accessories across more than a century. The Stern edition mark on a cast iron fireback is an indicator of artistic quality: rather than a purely functional object, this piece was conceived as a limited artistic edition, produced in the tradition of the foundry’s long engagement with sculptural casting.

The biblical subject of Adam and Eve — the foundational narrative of temptation, knowledge, and the human condition — was a recurring theme in French modernist decorative arts of the post-war decades. The present fireback, with its accomplished figural composition and the prestige of its Stern provenance, is a notable example of this artistic tradition, closely related to other fireplace editions produced by the Stern atelier during the same period.

Dimensions: W. 58 × D. 3 × H. 48 cm.