Joseph-Antoine Bernard (1866-1931) - Lot 167

Joseph-Antoine Bernard (1866-1931) Boxer Bronze with brown patina. Created between 1928 and 1930. Signed, dated and annotated in wax by the artist on the terrace. Bears the founder's stamp "C.Valsuani cire perdue". H. 47 cm Sculptor Joseph Bernard's predilection for the theme of dance, which he explored intensely in the 1920s, is well known. Fascinated by dancing figures, he pursued his quest for the representation of the body in movement by also depicting male figures inspired by the world of sport. After the figure of the Dancing Faun from the ballet performed by the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, at the end of the 1920s he executed a small corpus of sportsmen including Figure for an Athlete, Man Wearing a Barbell and Our Boxer. Related literature: René Jullian, Joseph Bernard, Saint-Rémy-les-Che- vreuses, Ed. Fondation de Coubertin, 1989, no. 261, p. 333-334.