Maximilien Bourgeois (1839-1901) Large Bronze Woman With Lyre H:75 Cm

Important 19th century bronze sculpture with medal patina signed Max. BOURGEOIS (Maximilien Louis Bourgeois 1839-1901) The statue rests on an innovative rotating base bearing a patent mark of the time (see photo). Dimensions 75 cm high x 28 cm wide. To specify a title carved on the facade entitled "La Cigale" featuring an allegorical figure of music with an elegant young woman dressed in an eventful drapery sketching a slow and sensual movement of revealing her nudity, she holds a Lyre in her left hand while his right hand emerges with a suave and irresistible attraction to hold the fabric above his chest. This scholarly and attractive work demonstrates that the sculptor has arranged symbolic elements (the lyre, the wind...) and attitudes (the eyes...) whose combination can help us understand the scene. This arrangement seems to form an allegory, that is to say a means used by the artist to give rise to and communicate spiritual thoughts, abstract ideas using symbolic figures and mythological characters. In this construction, the lyre refers to Apollo, the musician god par excellence, the wind to Zephyr, the messenger of the Gods, intermediary between the heavens and men. Music therefore brings pleasure to gods and men, moreover, it creates a link between humans and the Gods, which is confirmed by the position of the young woman between heaven and earth. This power of music goes beyond the human condition and through it, it can allow men to overcome their condition. Maximilien Louis Bourgeois is a sculptor trained at the School of Fine Arts in Paris under the direction of François Jouffroy (1806-1882) before becoming a student of the sculptor Émile Thomas (1817-1882) he made his first artistic creations with a goldsmith modeler, then in his own workshop located at 103 rue de Sèvres in Paris. Bourgeois models busts, statues, medallions and medals of senators and deputies, those of the centenary of the Republic and the École Polytechnique. He created the famous stone sculpture by Eustache Le Sueur adorning the facade of the Paris City Hall. Exhibitor every year since 1863 at the Salon des Artistes français. Known works: Monument to General Beaurepaire (1888) Angers, Verdun bridge. The monumental fountain at La Chaux de Fonds around 1888. The Snake Charmer 1862 or 1864 Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Allegory of ceramics Nantes Museum 1899. Mercury marble sculpture at the Bordeaux Fine Arts Museums.