Louis Tuaillon (1862-1919)

What a magnificent piece ! (And I think I've got Robert Mileham, again, to thank for it) This is something Barye might have done -- and who's greater than Barye ? Why has this sculptor been unknown to me until now ?

This is also the same song my father sings -- this hymn to a Prussian kind of idealized masculinity that is as beautiful as it is destructive.















Here's some other views




I badly need more pictures of this one -- it reminds of the Marcus Aurelius -- but not quite as powerful.



But I'm not ambivalent about this one -- wow ! Handsome, naked young dude leading a horse -- what girl could ask for more ?

He may have been German -- but, like Poussin, Louis spent much of his life in Rome --and he is credited, in various ways, with the education of another one of my favorite sculptors, Georg Kolbe. One account says that he taught Kolke how to make moulds -- another that he taught him how to model -- and another that he inspired Kolbe, who at first was a painter, to turn to sculpture. Could all three be true ?

I'd also like to note that all the pieces shown above were done after 1900 -- and I'm tending to believe one of the texts that says that the first piece shown (Hercules with the Erymantian Boar) marked a change in style for him -- away from the 19th c. classical of Hildebrand --- and towards the kind of 20th C. classical practiced by Bourdelle.

And finally -- I'd like to note that two copies of this piece are currently on sale over the internet -- one given an auction estimate less than $3000 -- and so I'm thinking that this piece was once quite popular and, like Barye's lions, was issued in an unlimited edition -- in various sizes -- over which the artist may or may not have exercised any quality control.