Amand Honoré Désiré Barré (1834- 1922?) - Lot 180

Amand Honoré Désiré Barré (1834- 1922?) Quaerens quem Devoret , previously entitled "Demain! Created in 1877 Monumental cast-iron with brown patina richly shaded with red Signed "A. BARRE" on the side of the terrace Bears the foundry mark Antoine Durenne 'A DURENNE SOMMEVOIRE'. H. 185 cm and terrace dim.: 76 x 60 cm ; weight: approx.480 kg Display: - The bronzed plaster model exhibited at the 1879 Salon, under no. 4780. Related literature: Musée du Vieux manoir -Pôle Muséal et des arts plastiques, Jeune fauve se découvrant les cornes, Amand Honoré Barré, catalog published online by Lisieux Normandie, communauté d'agglomération, ss d. Presented at the 1879 Salon in its original plaster version, this impressively realistic work depicting a pardoned Communard returning from the penal colony caused a sensation. The newspaper Le Petit caporal published on June 2, 1879, in its brief "Choses du Jour" (p.1), its enthusiastic assessment of the work. the subject: "The sculptor Barré has exhibited a bronze plaster statue in front of which the crowd stops in astonishment. It's a Communard returning from Nouméa. Callot has never invented a more sinister beggar, covered Covered in hyperbolic rags, their tears revealing solid muscles, the "gracié" strides forward menacingly, a gnarled stick in his hand, his eye full of threats"..: Quaerens quem devoret," wrote the artist at the base of his statue, "is hardly reassuring. Readers, my friends, don't go to the Salon without seeing "he who will devour us". In his preamble, the journalist reminded us that the work has a notoriously political dimension. Its creator, Amand Honoré Désiré Barré, is known for his committed works. He trained with Hector Edmond Le Harivel-Durocher, a native of the Orne region. After settling in Paris, he exhibited works at the Salon from 1868, in a fairly academic vein. His Jeune faune se regardant les cornes (marble version presented at the 1874 Salon) and his Rêve d'Armide (Armide's Dream), selected for the 1878 Exposition Universelle, won him some recognition. The artist was also a politically committed poet and writer, promoting the Bonapartist parliamentary group "L'appel au peuple" alongside his friend the politician Jules Amigues (1829-1883). Calling himself a "man of order", his depiction of the convict at the 1877 Salon was rejected for the first time. Originally entitled "Demain!", this threatening work predicted the peril of a new Commune and the bloody disorder it would inevitably engender if the Communards deported to New Caledonia were pardoned. The bronze plaster version of the work was apparently once displayed in a store window on the Rue de la Paix in Paris. But its presence caused such a stir that the store was closed and the work removed. Two years later, in 1879, Le forçat fraîchement libéré du bagne de Toulon, as indicated on the milestone, was finally accepted at the Salon. It was a remarkable embodiment of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo's famous novel published in 1862 (cf. Gustave Brion's illustration, Jean Valjean à sa sortie du bagne en 1815). It now bears the Latin title "Quaerens quem devoret" ("seeking someone to devour"). The threat remains, but the status of convict now takes precedence over that of communard. communard. The title can also be found on this unique, high-quality cast, made by Antoine Durenne's renowned art and ornament foundry in Sommevoire (Haute-Marne). Cabinet SCULPTURE ET COLLECTION