Attributed to Jef LAMBEAUX (1852-1908) - Lot 151

Attributed to Jef LAMBEAUX (1852-1908) Bacchante with pampers Bust in bronze with brown patina. Height: 49.5 cm. Resting on a circular red-brown marble pedestal bearing the number "751". Total height: 69.5 cm. Provenance: French private collection. Related works: - Jef Lambeaux, Bacchante, 1907, plaster, H. 71 x W. 55 x D. 26 cm, Saint Gilles, Maison Communale, inv. 11052448 ; - Jef Lambeaux, Femme, plaster, signed "Jef Lambeaux", H. 46 cm, Liège, Musée des beaux-arts, inv. 10129886 Related literature: - Jacques Van Lennep (ed.), La sculpture belge au XIXe siècle, cat. exp., Brussels, Générale de Banque, October 5-December 15, 1990, Brussels, 1990, vol. 2, p. 478-483. - Sandra Buratti-Hasan, Sara Vitacca, Bacchanales modernes, le nu, l'ivresse et la danse dans l'art français du XIXe siècle, cat. exp., Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Feb. 12-May 13, 2016, Milan, Silviana editoriale, 2016. This important bust of a bacchante with vine leaves reflects the craze for bacchanalian themes at the end of the 19th century. Fanning the imagination of artists, the figures of Bacchus and his cohort of satyrs and fauns appeared in fantasized Dionysian processions and banquets. Moving away from her role as a maenad, the bacchante becomes one of the main figures in these bacchic scenes, serving as a pretext for sensual, even licentious representation. The image of the Bacchante, found both on the walls of the Salon and on the mantelpieces of art lovers, was a favorite subject of sculptors such as Carpeaux, Dalou, Larche, Desbois and Puech. The laughing expression, the bubbling hair mingled with vine leaves and heavy bunches of grapes, and the half-revealed bosom bear witness to a concern for realism imbued with a sensuality that evokes the disinhibition of drunkenness. This beautiful bust is similar to the work of Belgian sculptor Jef Lambeaux. The sometimes sentimental, sensual and even daring nature of his sculpture first earned him criticism from the critics, then considerable success, enabling him to become the leader of Belgian sculpture at the end of the 19th century. While the influence of Carpeaux and Rodin is obvious, Lambeaux's style is always spectacular and virtuosic, giving a new lease of life to the Belgian school of sculpture. At the Brussels Salon in 1893, and again at the Paris Salon in 1895, the artist presented a bronze entitled "L'ivresse" (Drunkenness), kept in a private collection and of which no reproduction is known. It could be our bust.