Self Portrait

There is another version of this bronze in the Musées de Metz. This version is inscribed "par lui-meme" (by himself) sugesting that the sculptor may have intended to portray himself as Aesop, the Greek storyteller who wrote fables about animals. Fratin did not sign his works, instead he stamped them with his last name in block letters. One of the stamps made for this use was produced with the N reversed. Fratin still used this stamp, and this bronze is stamped with that reversed N.