Clovis Edmond Masson (1838 - 1913) was born in Paris, France March 7th 1838. He was one of the many pupils of the sculptor Antoine Louis Barye.  He exhibited his Animalier sculpture regularly at the Salon starting in 1867 with a model titled Indian Tiger Hunt in plaster.  Masson continued to exhibit his works at the Salon and entered a total of 52 separate sculptures, most of them in plaster or wax, up until 1909.  His works are mostly of wild animals; especially the large cats that his teacher was so fond of, and vary in appearance from a simple standing animal portrait to complex combat groups.  Masson had his sculpture cast in bronze by the foundries Thiebault and Susse Freres in both the lost wax and sand-cast forms and they are of a high standard of detail and finish.  Examples of this very successful sculptor's works are in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, and at the Museum of Nimes in France.

The life of Clovis Masson is documented in the following books:

Les Animaliers by Jane Horswell (1971)
The Animaliers by James Mackay (1973)
Animals in Bronze by Christopher Payne (1986)
Bronzes of the 19th Century by Pierre Kjellberg (1994)
A Concise History of Bronzes by George Savage (1968)
Dictionnaire des Peintres et Sculpteurs by E. Benezit (1966)
Dictionnaire de Sculpteurs de l'ecole Francaise by Stanaslas Lami (1914)

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