Beautifully detailed French 19th century gilt-bronze of a resting deerhound by Paul Joseph Raymond Gayrard (1807-1855).  With cast signature ‘Gayrard London 1848’ to the base. 

Gayrard was born in Clermont, France in 1807 and was the son of sculptor and engraver Raymond Gayrard under whom he studied.  He also studied under Francoise Rude and David D'Angers. He exhibited at the French Salon from 1827 to 1855, winning a second class medal in 1834 and a first class medal in 1846. He was a popular society portrait sculptor and produced many portrait busts of the celebrities of the day, as well as animal subjects which he had a particular talent for. His recorded bronze animal models date from the years 1846-48 and include the amusing Monkey Steeplchase (1846), Harnessed Horse (1847), first exhibited at the Salon in plaster and purchased in bronze by the Commissioners of the Musee de Valenciennes in 1850, and Deerhound (1848) as shown here.