ALFRED BOUCHER | LA PHILOSOPHIE DE L'HISTOIRE (THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY)

Boucher exhibited a relief of La Philosophie de l'Histoire at the Salon in 1898 and again at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. The girl looks sadly out over the rocks to the sea where a sail boat can just be seen carved in very low relief, departing towards the horizon. As with many of his other conceptions, Boucher varied and re-worked the model several times. The present relief compares with the example in the musée de Nogent-sur-Seine (Piette, 2014, op. cit., no. A56-1). The figure was later adapted in bronze for the monument to Auguste Burdeau (1851-1894), a professor of philosophy and a French republican politician.

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Piette, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934 "sculpteur – humaniste", exh. cat. Musée Paul Dubois – Alfred Boucher, Nogent-sur-Seine, 2000, no. 49, p. 55; J. Piette, Alfred Boucher 1850-1934: L'oeuvre sculpté Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2014, pp. 238-243