EMMANUEL FREMIET
French, 1824-1910
"Singe à l’escargot" (Monkey Studying a Snail)
Patinated terracotta, stamped FREMIET and signed E. FREMIET in the base
Circa 1895
10 7/8" W x 6 3/4" H x 6 1/4" D
This finely modeled terracotta depicts a monkey seated on a rocky base, its head and body bent forward in concentrated study of a snail at its feet. The form is composed in a single piece, with the figure’s rounded silhouette enclosing a compact, inward-turned space that heightens the sense of absorption. The fur is rendered with tightly worked modeling, contrasted with the smoother textures of the snail’s shell and the surrounding vegetation.
The design is documented in bronze as early as the mid-1890s, with a chef-modèle recorded around 1895. It first appears in the records of the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres in 1896, where it was produced in biscuit porcelain until 1942. Surviving examples also exist in stoneware from the Musée Baron-Martin in Gray. While its first appearance in Sèvres documentation might suggest a new commission, there is no evidence the model was created specifically for the manufactory. Frémiet is known to have supplied Sèvres with existing designs in exchange for reproduction rights, and Singe à l’escargot likely entered the catalogue in this way, having already been issued in bronze by foundries such as More and Barbedienne.
The pose and subject bear a conceptual link to Frémiet’s dramatic Orang-outang et sauvage de Bornéo, but here the intensity of physical struggle is replaced with quiet observation. It is possible that Frémiet drew upon the same studies of simian anatomy and behavior that informed the earlier work, repurposing them to create a composition of reflective stillness. The dating of the model falls within a decade (1885–1895) in which Frémiet produced a number of notable animal subjects, including Cheval pour le sang (1885), Anne du Caire (1890), Chiens lévriers (1886) and Poule aux œufs d’or (1897).
The treatment of the base, with its layered foliage and rocky forms, closely parallels Frémiet’s work in other reliefs of the period. The minute detail of the snail itself plays a structural and thematic role, aligning the sculpture with a compositional tendency in Frémiet’s work: the introduction of a small, peripheral figure or object that acts as a visual focal point. In Renard, Chatte mangeant une souris, Courlis et grenouille, and Chien griffon à la tortue, the entire visual tension of the piece converges on a diminutive creature: the frog, tortoise, or mouse. It is the small curiosity that has the larger subject’s attention entirely fixed. The snail here serves precisely this function: its near-absence of movement and scale contrast with the coiled, attentive energy of the monkey. This works to sustain both the tension and the unity of the composition.
Curator's Note:
In the latter half of the 19th century, monkeys captivated the public imagination as symbols of curiosity and latent intellect. Advances in natural history, encounters with exotic fauna and Darwinian discourse on evolution heightened interest in primates. Frémiet’s Monkey Studying a Snail exemplifies this cultural fascination, not through intense or sensational drama, but rather via a subtle observation of a possibly contemplative creature in nature.
Unlike his gorilla or orang‑utan tableaux, which evoked tension or drama, this work presents the monkey engaged in quiet study, a gesture that invites reflection on cognition and the thin line between animal instinct and thought. The choice of a snail reinforces the theme of deliberate, patient observation in miniature. This aligns with the broader shift in the period toward viewing animals not merely as resources or curiosities, but as expressive beings with their own agency. This same motif is found echoed across naturalist literature, scientific illustration, and emerging ethnographic studies of the late 19th century.
Emmanuel Fremiet:
Born Paris, 6 December 1824, Emmanuel Fremiet was the nephew and pupil of sculptor François Rude and he initially trained in anatomical lithography and model-making. In 1843 he debuted at the Salon with a study of a gazelle, followed by Wounded Bear and Wounded Dog (1850), both acquired by the Luxembourg Museum.
In the 1850s, Frémiet became notable for animal and Napoleonic subjects, including statuettes of Napoleon III’s basset hounds exhibited at the Paris Salon (1853) and commissioned statuettes for the emperor (1855–1859). He produced public equestrian monuments: Napoleon I (1868), Louis d’Orléans (1869), and the gilded bronze Jeanne d’Arc (1874) in Place des Pyramides, later replaced in 1889; this statue remains a Paris landmark.
His animalier works include Pan and the Bear Cubs (Musée d’Orsay), Elephant trapped (Musée d’Orsay), and notably the sensational Gorilla Carrying off a Woman (1887), awarded a Salon medal of honour, and Orang‑outang strangling a Borneo savage (1895) for the Natural History Museum of Paris.
Other significant public and monumental works include the Saint Michael terrassant le dragon (1897) atop Mont‑Saint‑Michel, the equestrian Velázquez in the Louvre gardens, and the Ferdinand de Lesseps monument (1899) in Port‑Saïd. Frémiet was named Officer of the Legion of Honour (1878), elected to the Académie des Beaux‑Arts (1892), and succeeded Barye as professor of animal drawing at the Natural History Museum in Paris.
He died in Paris, 10 September 1910
Condition: Exquisite original condition. No observed flaws.
Literature:
Emmanuel Fremiet 1824-1910. La main et le multiple, Catherine Chevillot, 1989, p. 86, the present model discussed as catalog no. 60
ref. 506PLT20P
