Life-size marble sculpture of a hunter by Samain

This fine life-sized marble sculpture is by the Belgian sculptor Louis Samain. Samain, who studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, won the Belgian Prix de Rome, and lived and worked in Italy for several years. In 1889, Samain won an exceptionally prestigious gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, one of the highest honours an artist could then receive.

The present sculpture depicts a young man in the garb of a hunter. The figure stands in contrapposto, his right leg crossed in front of his left, his left arm draped by his side and his right folded across his midriff. He glances to his right, a bundle of items in the crook of his right arm. The quality of the sculpting is superb, with high relief passages—such as the layers of clothing that cover his chest—interspersed with moments of delicate precision, such as the locks of his hair or the wrinkles of his socks.

The sculpture is raised on a grey marble plinth and is signed and dated to the base ‘L. Samain 1872’.

Figure: Height 147cm, width 55cm, depth 38cm
Pedestal: Height 76cm, diameter 46cm
Total: Height 223cm