Émile Muller was a French ceramicist, architect and sculptor who founded the Grande Tuilerie d’Ivry near Paris in 1854. Initially producing ceramics for architecture and industry, the manufactory later became celebrated for glazed terracotta, architectural ornament and reproductions of sculpture.
Following Émile’s death, his son Louis Muller (1855–1921) took control of the firm under the name Émile Muller & Cie. He expanded its production of sculptural stoneware and worked with artists, designers and museum curators to reproduce both contemporary sculpture and historic works.
Among these projects were casts taken from objects in French museum collections. The present model derives from a Romanesque carving in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, whose important holdings include sculpture from the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Notre-Dame de la Daurade and Toulouse Cathedral.
