Joseph-Antoine BERNARD (1866-1931): Figure for an athlete. Bronze sculpture with brown patina. Posthumous casting signed on the terrace J. Bernard, numbered 3/10, Coubertin founder's stamp. Height : 182 cm. Total height: 195 cm. Square base: 52 x 52 cm. Provenance: the artist's family. This figure for an athlete is unfinished. Initially, the artist wanted to make a man drinking: he transformed a sketch into plaster entitled "Buveur" (cat. Van Oest, 1932, no. 187) and "Buveur en cours d'exécution, fragment, tête en plâtre" (cat. Van Oest, 1928, no. 136) . The bronze edition consisted of only five proofs. The first proof, cast in 1931, is still in the artist's family. A second proof, found in his garden after Rudier's death, has been attributed to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The third proof was cast by the Fonderie de Coubertin. Bibliographical source: René JULLIAN, Pascale GREMONT-GERVAISE: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculptée de Joseph Bernard, les presses de l'imprimerie du compagnonnage de Paris, page 333, 1989.