A Fine Late 19th Century White Carrara Double Figure Marble Entitled “Tendresse” by Émile-André Boisseau

$55,000

Depicting an early Middle Eastern couple, the man with his arm around his wife, comforting her, standing on a oval carved base with a water jug.

Inscribed E. A. Boisseau to the base.

Émile-André Boisseau (French 1842-1923) was born in Varzy and studied at the college in this town. He left the locality in 1857 and worked in Bourges, under the direction of a sculptor, on the restoration of diocesan buildings. He then entered the Paris School of Fine Arts where he received teaching from Auguste Dumont then Jean-Marie Bonnassieux.

In 1868, Émile Boisseau debuted at the Paris Salon and, in 1869, he presented his first statue there, that of Dupin, attorney general at the Court of Cassation. This bronze work was installed the same year on the Place du Marché in Varzy. At the following Salons, Boisseau exhibited busts of contemporary figures and works in the neoclassical or neo-baroque style. He also works for Parisian mansions and produces statuettes or clock subjects produced in bronze by art founders. In 1874 he created a statue of Figaro, for the facade of the eponymous newspaper building, rue Drouot in Paris. In 1882, he sculpted a statue of Beaumarchais for the facade of the Paris City Hall. A marble version of his Defense of the Home from 1884 was acquired by the City of Paris, which erected it in the Champ-de-Mars square.

Sculpture
Height – 36 inches / 91cm
Width – 20.5 inches / 52cm
Depth – 12 inches / 30cm