‘Ecstasy’ A White Statuary Marble Figure of a Reclining Nude Attributed to Henri Paul Marc Boissonade

Description

‘Ecstasy’ – A White Statuary Marble Figure of a Reclining Nude, Attributed to Henri Paul Marc Boissonade.

Signed and dated: ‘h. boissonnade 1905’.

This sensual depiction of a female nude reclining on a bearskin rug exhibits a fin-de-siècle fascination for expressions of visceral ecstasy wrought in the female form. In nineteenth century French sculpture the touchpaper was the unveiling of Auguste Clésinger’s (1814-1883) marble Femme piquée par un Serpent in 1847 of which it was commented in the La Revue des Deux Mondes stated: “[…] the title and the serpent are concessions made to the jury! Who do they laugh at? This woman does not suffer, she enjoys!”.

Femme piquée par un serpent by Auguste Clésinger, 1847 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

Henri Paul Marc Boissonade of 5 Rue Benoville, Paris, is recorded for exhibiting ‘Femme à sa toilette’ at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. Although little recorded, in the present composition Boissonade was clearly inspired by celebrated variations of the subject such as La Grande Névrose by Jacques Loysel shown at the 1900 Paris Exposition universelle, Näckrosen (Water Lily) by the Swedish sculptor Per Hasselberg and most famous today, La Danaïde by Auguste Rodin.

France, Dated 1905.

La Grande Névrose by Jacques Loysel was shown at the 1896 Paris Salon and the 1900 Paris Exposition universelle.

Näckrosen (Water Lily) by the Swedish sculptor Per Hasselberg, Stockholm, 1892 (Gothenburg Museum of Art (Gothenburg, Sweden).

Related composition by Auguste Rodin, La Danaïde, sculpted circa 1901 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen).