104. Alfred Boucher (1850-1934) Carrara marble high relief bust of the back representing Diana Signed A. BOUCHER Circa 1891-1894 H. 42 cm - L. 39 cm A carved marble high relief back of Diana, signed Alfred Boucher (1850-1934), circa 1891-1894 Alfred Boucher (1850-1934) discovered sculpture at an early age when his father was hired as a gardener by the neoclassical sculptor Marius Ramus (1805-1888) in Nogent-sur-Seine. Ramus recognised the young Boucher's talent, gave him access to his studio, encouraged him and involved him in some of his projects, including the creation of the décor for the municipal theatre in Nogent-sur-Seine. He made a plaster cast of a crayfish fisherman (now lost) and some of the decorative masks that adorn the façade. He continued his apprenticeship with sculptors Paul Dubois (1829-1905) and Augustin Dumont (1801-1884). In 1871, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and competed for the Prix de Rome from 1875 to 1879. He exhibited at the Salon from 1874 and was awarded a third-class medal that same year. He won the second Prix de Rome in 1876 with 'Jason winning the Golden Fleece'. He won a Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition of 1881 and 1900. Boucher also spent a long time in Italy studying the masterpieces of Antiquity, and moved to Florence in 1876. It was during this stay, influenced by the art of the Renaissance and Antiquity, that he began to develop his naturalist style. He received numerous commissions and quickly established a reputation as a talented sculptor. In 1887, he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, for his bronze group 'Au But'. In 1892, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and in 1894 was awarded the Grand-Croix. Producing numerous bust portraits, allegorical figures, groups and monuments in marble and bronze, his work is characterised by naturalism and a skilful blend of romantic and genre tendencies. At the end of an exemplary career, a philanthropist and generous man, Boucher began mentoring young artists in 1900, providing them with models and affordable studios in Montparnasse, La Rotonde des Vins and La Ruche des Arts. Alexandre Archipenko, Ossip Zadkine, Soutine, Chagall, Modigliani and Jacques Lipchitz, among others, benefited from Boucher's generosity, as did Camille Claudel (1864-1943), whose talent he quickly recognised, taught for many years and introduced to Rodin. In 1887, he moved to the Villa des Arts in Nogent-sur-Seine, where he founded the Paul Dubois-Alfred Boucher Museum in 1902, now the Camille Claudel Museum. It was here that he began to produce a wide variety of works, including monumental statues and high-relief busts of the back, such as the lot shown here. With an unwavering fidelity to aesthetic criteria, Boucher was intrigued by the effect of depicting soft skin on rough rock, and repeatedly explored variations on this theme, sculpting his models in three-quarter relief like our sculpture. Alfred Boucher's Head of Diana is the first of several variations on the theme of the female body emerging from a crudely sculpted surround. The apparently unfinished treatment of the female form is often associated with two of the artist's Exhibition pieces, 'Diane Surprise' in marble in 1893/4 (deposited in the Musée Galliera), and 'Volubilis' in 1896. Boucher reworked these two models several times, concentrating mainly on the fluid movement of the young woman's flawless skin evolving from the rough surface of her marble support. Our high-relief bust plays on the degree to which the soft, smooth forms protrude from the rough marble support. The perfect anatomy of the figure almost detaches itself from the rough surroundings in an introspective and erotic reverie. Boucher's contemporary critics took a dim view of the 'unfinished' aspect of these works, but this distinctive style not only influenced Boucher's later pupil Camille Claudel, but can also be compared to some of Auguste Rodin's expressive works. A very similar high-relief bust of the back sold at Christie's, New York, 19th Century European Art & Orientalist Art, 12 April 2007, lot 161 ($60,000) is illustrated in the artist's catalogue raisonné (Piette, op. cit., 2014). The masterly work presented here, which has been in the same French collection for several generations, is not only a particularly intimate exploration of the female form, but also a rare model and a rediscovery in Boucher's oeuvre. Comparative bibliographies: J. Piette, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934: L'Oeuvre sculpté, Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2014, A32-18. J. Piette, Centenaire du Musée de Nogent-sur-Seine et de la Ruche de paris 1902-2002, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934: Sculpteur-Humaniste, Nogent-sur-Seine, 2002, pp. 29-30.