Alfred Finot

Following his training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, Alfred Finot apprenticed in the workshop of the renowned sculptor Louis-Ernest Barrias when at the École nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from 1895.

The present model was included in the exhibition organised by the Société lorraine des amis des arts in 1903, where the art critic Emile Nicolas (1871-1940) praised the Dernier Baiser as a chef-d’oeuvre made in the city of Nancy. The marble depicts a reclining woman, lying on her right side, embracing a head of a male figure who emerges from the ground. The features of the faces are beautifully softened and the woman’s wavy hair partly covers her face. This type of female figure reappears in several works by Finot’s hand, including in his bronze of Les feuilles mortes, which is in the Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy (inv. no. 247).

The evocative marble alludes to the love between a Nymph and Satyr, which was a popular motive inspiring artists of Finot’s time, including a bronze by Auguste Rodin (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. no. 1942.42). The forms of the figures are almost impressionistic, oscillating between realism and fantasy, relating to the work of Rodin.

RELATED LITERATURE

Société lorraine des amis des arts : catalogue, XL^e exposition, Nancy, 1903, p. 150, no. 739; https://www.famsf.org/artworks/faun-and-nymph-faune-et-nymphe, 17/11/2023