Gorilla carrying off a woman
(Gorille enlevant une femme)
(1887)
Medium
bronze
Measurements
44.7 × 30.6 × 33.1 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of the artist, 1907
© Public Domain
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Emmanuel Frémiet’s life-size plaster sculpture Gorilla carrying off a Negress caused a scandal at the Paris Salon of 1859, where the work was exhibited behind a curtain as a ‘rejected’ item. Its sexual and violent overtones then disturbed even the most liberal of critics. Frémiet returned to the subject nearly thirty years later, exhibiting another life-size plaster variant on his earlier theme, Gorilla carrying off a woman (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes) that earned him a Medal of Honour at the Paris Salon of 1887. In 1888 Frémiet began to cast smaller versions, in bronze that served to popularize the sculpture as a universal image of aggression and conflict.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
France
Inscription
cast in base u.r.: E. FREMiET
Accession Number
316-2
Department
International Sculpture
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited