A FRENCH GILT-BRONZE GROUP OF VENUS AND PUTTI

The son and student of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Moreau, Mathurin entered the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, when he was nineteen years old, training under the direction of Etienne-Jules Ramey and Augustin-Alexandre Dumont. After placing second in the 1842 Prix de Rome, he made his debut in the Salon of 1848, where he subsequently won various State commissions, medals and prizes. Around 1850 he began providing models for reproduction in bronze for the Val d'Osne foundry, where he later became an administrator of the Société du Val d'Osne.