1 / 5
a bronze statue of a man holding a shield and a shielda bronze statue of a woman in a cloak and hata bronze figure of a man with a hat and robea bronze statue of a woman in a cloak holding a staffan image of a sculpture of a dog inside of a box
Premium Artcurial

300 - Jean BOUCHER (Cesson-Sévigné, 1870 – Paris, 1939) Fra Angeli…
See original version (French)

Estimate €3,000 - €4,000
Sale commission
Description
Jean BOUCHER (Cesson-Sévigné, 1870 – Paris, 1939) Fra Angelico holding his palette Bronze with a richly nuanced reddish-brown patina Height: 65 cm Provenance: Galerie Thierry Burel, Paris; Acquired from the gallery by the current owner; Private collection, Paris Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, where he was noticed by Charles Lenoir, and subsequently in Paris under Falguière, Chapu and Mercié, Jean Boucher enjoyed a brilliant career marked by several major monumental commissions. After winning the Second Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1894 and 1898, it was ultimately the monument he erected in memory of Ernest Renan in 1903 that brought him fame and established his work in the public consciousness. Awarded the Medal of Honour in 1908 and made an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1914, he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1919 and became a member of the Institut in 1936. Depicting a striking full-length portrait of Fra Angelico, our bronze is based on the plaster cast exhibited by Boucher at the 1913 Salon des Artistes Français (cat. no. 3641). Praised with humour by Guillaume Apollinaire in his art reviews for its ‘astonishing spirit of truth, the very spirit of Giotto¹’, the work was commissioned in marble by the State for the Musée du Luxembourg², produced and exhibited the very following year at the Salon (cat. no. 3935). The emaciated, dreamy head of the famous painter of the early Italian Renaissance appears both sensual and naturalistic, hooded above the robe of his Dominican habit, whose large, sweeping folds lend the whole work a powerful monumentality. 1- Guillaume Apollinaire, *Chroniques d’art 1902–1918*, Paris, Gallimard, 1960, p. 397. 2- The marble sculpture is currently held at the Musée d’Orsay (RF 3898). Jean BOUCHER (Cesson-Sévigné, 1870 – Paris, 1939)
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale Old Masters & 19th-century masters
Auction location
Auction time 09/15/2026 at 11:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like