Alfred Boucher
FRENCH
L'HISTOIRE DEVANT UN TRONC D'ARBRE (ALLEGORY OF HISTORY BEFORE A TREE)
1850 - 1934
Alfred Boucher
signed: BOUCHER
bronze, gilt, green and brown patina
83cm., 32 5/8 in.
Provenance:
Born in Aube, Boucher studied with Marius Ramus in his home town before moving to Paris to study under Paul Dubois. He won a medal for his 1874 debut Salon exhibit of L'Enfant à la fontaine. In 1900 he was awarded a Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle and was later made an Officier Grand Croix of the Légion d'Honneur in 1925.
Boucher was particularly intrigued by the effect of representing soft skin against rough rock and repeatedly explored variations on this theme, carving his models in three-quarter relief. Most well-known are versions of his models Volubilis and La Philosophie de l’histoire. The present bronze, which is a variation on a bronze figure on the monument of Auguste Burdeau at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, is based on a plaster cast which was first executed just before 1902.
RELATED LITERATURE
Alfred Boucher 1850-1934 "sculpteur-humaniste", exh. cat. Musée Paul Dubois - Alfred Boucher, Nogent-sur-Seine, 2000, p. 80, no. 78; J. Piette, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934: L'oeuvre sculpté, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2014, pp. 246-247, no. A59B
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FRENCH
L'HISTOIRE DEVANT UN TRONC D'ARBRE (ALLEGORY OF HISTORY BEFORE A TREE)
1850 - 1934
Alfred Boucher
signed: BOUCHER
bronze, gilt, green and brown patina
83cm., 32 5/8 in.
Provenance:
Born in Aube, Boucher studied with Marius Ramus in his home town before moving to Paris to study under Paul Dubois. He won a medal for his 1874 debut Salon exhibit of L'Enfant à la fontaine. In 1900 he was awarded a Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle and was later made an Officier Grand Croix of the Légion d'Honneur in 1925.
Boucher was particularly intrigued by the effect of representing soft skin against rough rock and repeatedly explored variations on this theme, carving his models in three-quarter relief. Most well-known are versions of his models Volubilis and La Philosophie de l’histoire. The present bronze, which is a variation on a bronze figure on the monument of Auguste Burdeau at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, is based on a plaster cast which was first executed just before 1902.
RELATED LITERATURE
Alfred Boucher 1850-1934 "sculpteur-humaniste", exh. cat. Musée Paul Dubois - Alfred Boucher, Nogent-sur-Seine, 2000, p. 80, no. 78; J. Piette, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934: L'oeuvre sculpté, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2014, pp. 246-247, no. A59B