LOUIS-AUGUSTE THÉODORE-RIVIÈRE – “SALAMMBO CHEZ MATHO”, 1895

“SALAMMBO CHEZ MATHO”, 1895
Carved ivory
Signed and dedicated à mon ami A(ngelo) Mariani

Exhibition
Musée Galliéra, Exposition de la Statuette et du Meuble qui la présente ou l’accompagne, 1914, n. 373,
described as “Salammbô”, ivory (Collection of Mr Jacques Mariani)
Salammbô: Fureur ! Passion ! Elephants !, 20 October 2021-7 February 2022, exposition itinérante au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, au Mucem à Marseille et à l’Institut national du patrimoine à Tunis

Bibliography
Colette Dumas, Théodore Rivière – sa vie … Son œuvre, p. 61 to p. 66
Salammbo, Mucem, Réunion des Musées Métropolitains de Rouen, Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunisie, éditions Gallimard, 2021, ill. p. 110 in the exhibition catalogue

Provenance
Formerly in the Collection of Mr Angelo Mariani

Angelo Mariani, chemist and inventor of the “Vin Mariani”, a fortifying beverage based on coca bark, a true institution for nearly half a century before its essential component was banned, was the friend and patron of Theodore Riviere, who composed a collection of portraits and statuettes. The period documentation quotes a number of artworks exhibited at different Salons and having belonged to A. Mariani (or by descent to his son Jacques), such as La Caravane, plaster ; le Portrait de M. Mariani, bronze ; Salomé, ivory (our example) ; Les Huns ; Le Mur ; Le Silence, ivory, marble and bronze ; L’Empereur d’Annam, ivory and sculpted wood ; La Femme d’Elchi, ivory, marble and wood ; La brodeuse arabe, ivory, marble and enamels. Angelo Mariani was the patron of several artists including Jean Baffier.
Special order or gift of the artist, this sculpture, which is not among the works on display at the ivory exhibition at the Galliéra Museum in 1903, could have been executed around this date