LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY, SIGNED A. BOUCHER, WITH SIOT-PARIS FOUNDRY MARK AND X 9 1

The plaster version of 'Au But', or 'To the Goal', was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1886 and won a first class medal. The state awarded Boucher the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur and commissioned a life-size bronze version of Au But. The finished cast was exhibited at the Salon in 1887 (no. 3675), before being placed in the Luxembourg Gardens, where it remained until it was destroyed during the Nazi occupation. Such was the popularity of this work, it was edited in different sizes, and by various foundries, including Barbedienne, Susse and Siot-Decauville.