.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Having studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Dumont and Bonnassieux, Emile-André Boisseau began exhibiting at the Salon from 1870, showing works such as L'Amour Captif (plaster 1876; bronze 1891), Le Génie du Mal (marble 1880) and Le Crépuscule (marble 1883; see lot 154 sold in these rooms, 14 May 1998).
The present bust, entitled Mousmé japonaise was exhibited at the Salon in 1897, again at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, and for a third time at the 4th Venice International Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1901. In this rich display of polychromy, Boisseau returns to his preferred form of sculpture, combining differently-coloured marbles and onyx with gilt and patinated bronze and, here, even mother-of-pearl. In doing so he follows in the footsteps of the master and pioneer of polychrome sculpture in the 19th century, Charles Cordier (d. 1905), whose ethnographic portraits of North Africans and Asiatics, executed using similar materials, are reflected in the exotic, yet naturalistic characterization of this young Japanese woman.
Although his more usually employed firm of Thiébaut Frères were equally competent as fondeurs, it is not surprising that Boisseau entrusted the casting of the bronze elements incorporated in the present work to the celebrated Parisian foundry of Ferdinand Barbedienne. The latter's particular speciality during the 1880s and 1890s was the production of fine quality pieces in the chinoiserie and japonaise styles, inspired by the works of art exhibited in the Oriental pavilions during the major International Exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century.
The present bust, entitled Mousmé japonaise was exhibited at the Salon in 1897, again at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, and for a third time at the 4th Venice International Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1901. In this rich display of polychromy, Boisseau returns to his preferred form of sculpture, combining differently-coloured marbles and onyx with gilt and patinated bronze and, here, even mother-of-pearl. In doing so he follows in the footsteps of the master and pioneer of polychrome sculpture in the 19th century, Charles Cordier (d. 1905), whose ethnographic portraits of North Africans and Asiatics, executed using similar materials, are reflected in the exotic, yet naturalistic characterization of this young Japanese woman.
Although his more usually employed firm of Thiébaut Frères were equally competent as fondeurs, it is not surprising that Boisseau entrusted the casting of the bronze elements incorporated in the present work to the celebrated Parisian foundry of Ferdinand Barbedienne. The latter's particular speciality during the 1880s and 1890s was the production of fine quality pieces in the chinoiserie and japonaise styles, inspired by the works of art exhibited in the Oriental pavilions during the major International Exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century.