Lot 24: PAUL DUBOIS

PAUL DUBOIS FRENCH 1829 - 1905 CHANTEUR FLORENTINE (THE FLORENTINE SINGER) signed and dated: P. DVBOIS 1865 and inscribed: F. BARBEDIENNE FONDEUR with the: REDUCTION MECANIQUE A. COLLAS pastille; also inscribed: SOUVENIR D'UNE BIBLIOTHEQUE bronze, brown-green and gilt patina 116cm., 45¾in.

Chanteur Florentine is characteristic of Dubois' so-called 'néo-florentin' style of sculpture, and is believed to be have been inspired by the work of the fifteenth-century Italian artists Lorenzo da Viterbo, Benozzo Gozzoli and Pinturicchio. The plaster version was met with critical acclaim when it was first exhibited at the Salon of 1865, earning Dubois a Médaille d'Honneur. It has been described as 'one of the most popular sculptures of the nineteenth century.'

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Fusco and H. W. Janson (eds.), The Romantics to Rodin. French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections, ex. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with George Braziller, Inc., Los Angeles, 1980, pp. 242-243, no. 117