Bronze Sculpture Of A Stylised Bird On A Black Marble Base

This small but commanding bronze exemplifies the mid-to-late twentieth century tradition of sculptural abstraction applied to natural forms.

The bird — reduced to its essential volumes with the elegance of genuine artistic economy — reads at once as a specific creature and as a universal archetype. The body is rendered as a smooth, swelling mass, the head barely differentiated from the torso, yet the overall silhouette unmistakably evokes the watchful stillness of a roosting or contemplating bird. The warm golden-brown patina of the lost-wax cast bronze catches the light with depth and variation across the modelled surface. The piece is cast in a limited edition of five hundred examples, this being the 302nd cast, and bears the signature of the artist to the base.

The use of strictly limited editions in cast bronze — a practice formalised in the post-war art market — ensures the relative rarity of each cast and confers upon it the status of an original multiple: neither a unique sculpture nor mere reproduction, but a legitimate art object produced to exacting foundry standards.

The sculpture is mounted on a polished rectangular plinth of black marble, whose stark geometry provides an ideal foil for the organic warmth of the bronze form above. The piece would sit beautifully on a desk, console, or display shelf, and would make a sophisticated gift.

Numbered 302/500, signed. Dimensions: W. 27 × D. 12 × H. 20.5 cm.