Paul Alfred Isidore LIÉNARD (1841-1901) pair of Egyptian Revival vases

Paul Alfred Isidore LIÉNARD (1841-1901)
A Pair of Decorative Egyptian Revival Vases 
Green Glazed Earthenware Pottery
Paris, France
Circa 1870

Measure:-
31.2 cm (tall) x 20.2 cm (wide) x 8.5 cm (deep)

Impressed marks P. LIENARD to the bases.

The sculptor and designer Paul Liénard was the son of the ornamental sculptor Michel Joseph Napoléon Liénard (1810-1870) who had been a pupil of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Plantar (1790-1879). Michel Liénard was one of the most influential French ornamental details designers of the nineteenth century (though he is now often overlooked) and worked on the restoration of the Louvre from the late 1840's.

Paul studied under Théodore Duret and Eugène Lami at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. For a while he worked alongside and helped the Spanish sculptor and metalworker Plácido Zuloaga (1834–1910). He exhibited at the Salons of 1864, 1866 and 1890. Paul Liénard was responsible for a number of statues and portrait busts of famous sitters; his statue of Lord Henry Brougham (1778 –1868) was erected at Cannes in 1878. His father had won a gold medal for a monumental fountain at the1855 Paris World's Fair (a copy of which was bought by the wealthy American merchant Gardner Brewer (1806–1874) at the Paris Exposition of 1867 and installed as the "Brewer Fountain" on Boston Common). Like his father, Paul was also responsible for a number of impressive public fountains: the "Steble Fountain" was unveiled in Liverpool in 1879 and, along with Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912), Paul designed a huge monumental fountain for the Plaza Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina (now moved the to intersection of the avenues de Mayo and 9 de Julio).

So far there has been little study of Paul Liénard's ceramic output but these vases clearly show that it is definitively worthy of attention.

For an almost identical single vase in a turquoise blue glaze see Lot n° 47, Drouot "Art of Living" sale, Wednesday 8th February 2023.

His work is sometimes confused with that of the jeweller Paul-Gabriel Liénard (b.1880) and we are extremely grateful to the jewellery historian Monsieur Jean-Jacques Richard for the work he has undertaken in clarifying the different members of the Liénard family.