Alfred Boucher (1850-1934) - Lot 33

Alfred Boucher (1850-1934) Youth Circa 1900 Carrara marble Signed "A. BOUCHER" on the right shoulder H. 64.6 cm Produced around 1900, this bust entitled La Jeunesse (Youth) is one of a series of graceful female subjects by Alfred Boucher, including Volubilis, La Baigneuse (The Bather) and Le rêve (The Dream). Boucher soon acquired technical mastery with Joseph Marius Ramus, who recognized the young man's artistic predispositions and introduced him to sculptor Paul Dubois. With Dubois and at the École des Beaux-Arts, Alfred Boucher developed a taste for the idealization of the female body. While Dubois, leader of the "Florentines", found in the Quattrocento a starting point for the creation of his figures, Boucher freed himself from his master by drawing from Mannerism a more powerful exaltation of the female body. Boucher thus responded to the 19th century's taste for idealized, voluptuous, delicate figures of sensual innocence, while at the same time renewing this art by drawing inspiration from the Italian Renaissance and Bellifontan mannerism. Our work is the nude version of the two marbles listed for this model; the other, kept at the Musée de Nogent-sur-Seine, is adorned with a drape falling from the left shoulder, concealing the chest, and a square pedestal. Related work: Alfred Boucher, La Jeunesse, circa 1900, marble, H. 65 x W. 35 x D. 23 cm, signed "A. Boucher" under the right shoulder, Nogent-sur-Seine, Musée Paul Dubois-Alfred Boucher, inv. 1993.3. Related literature: Jacques Piette, Alfred boucher 1850-1934, l'œuvre sculpté, catalog raisonné, Paris, Mare & Martin, 2014, model listed under n°PB73, p. 325.