Late 19th century, patinated bronze, signed to naturalistic terrace edge, and titled to obverse base.

23 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 8 1/2 in.

Friedrich Beer (Friedrich Salomon/Samuel Beer), was the son of a merchant from Prossnitz in Moravia, Czech Republic. Orphaned at an early age, Beer was raised by relatives and attended the commercial academy in Prossnitz. He began an apprenticeship with a Viennese meerschaum carver at the age of fifteen. From 1865 to 1870, he studied under Carl Radnitzky (1818-1901) and Franz Bauer (1798-1872) at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He received the Rome scholarship for his group of figures "Achilles and Penthesilea", allowing him a studio in the Palazzo di Venezia for three years in Rome. In 1873 he returned to Vienna, but then settled in Paris in 1875 and initially concentrated on amusing female portraits and statuettes in collaboration with the humorist Alfred Grévin. In the 1890s he met Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau and created several sculptures with Zionist themes. In 1902 Beer moved to Florence, where he spent the last decade of his life.

Alfred Grévin was a 19th-century caricaturist, best known during his lifetime for his caricature silhouettes of contemporary Parisian women. He was also a sculptor, cartoonist, and designed costumes and sets for popular theater.
He founded with journalist Arthur Meyer the Musée Grévin, a waxwork museum. His caricatures and drawings were published in contemporary newspapers and magazines such as Le Gaulois, Le Journal Amusant, Le Petit Journal pour Rire and Le Charivari.

Good estate condition; some minor dust accretions to interstices; light verdigris and rubbing to patina.