Lot number 3270 - Auction 160
'L'HIRONDELLE BLESSÉE' (AUCH PSYCHE)

ALFRED BOUCHER 1850 Nogent-sur-Seine - 1934 Aix-les-Bains 'L'HIRONDELLE BLESSÉE' (ALSO KNOWN AS 'PSYCHE') France, probably around 1920 Gilded bronze, on a stepped pedestal. H. 45, W. 19, D. 21 cm, weight approx. 10.31 kg. Inscribed "Boucher" on the front; bears the foundry mark "Susse Frères Paris" on the side. An allegorical depiction of Psyche, also known as "L'Hirondelle blessée" (The Wounded Swallow). An impressive composition that combines academic naturalism with the poetic formal language of French Symbolism. The gilded bronze depicts a winged young woman seated in a gracefully contorted posture on a pedestal. Her downcast gaze, the softly modeled contours of her body, and her restrained gestures lend the figure a quiet, melancholic aura. Partial loss of patina; repairs on the shoulder and head. Bibliography: See Kjellberg, Pierre: *Les Bronzes du XIXe Siècle. Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs*, Paris, 1987. Provenance: Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia.