Toulouse: the Musée des Augustins acquires a new work by the Toulouse sculptor Falguière
Directed by Jean-AlexandreJoseph Falguière, “Buste d’enfant” reveals the work of this sculptor from Toulouse at the start of his career. It enters the collection of the Musée des Augustins.
It is a moving work that the Musée des Augustins has just acquired for 3900 €. Entitled Bust of a child, this sculpture by the Toulouse artist Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900), represents a young boy with tender eyes. “If the marble work is strangely reminiscent of Renaissance models, it is indeed a boy of his time, dressed in a sailor costume, common dress at the time, believes Charlotte Riou, curator, in charge sculptures at the Musée des Augustins. Sculpted in 1870 and certainly exhibited at the Paris Salon, this bust reveals the first years of work of this artist, thus completing the already important collection of the Augustins on this artist”.
“The sculptor treated childhood with extreme sensitivity, far from any sentimentality”
If we ignore almost everything about the history of this bust, we easily discover that it was treated in a very personal way “perhaps this child was close to the sculptor because the style is familiar, far of any academy, observes Charlotte Riou. Alexandre Falguière here treats childhood with sensitivity far from any sentimentality”. A soft, melancholic gaze, matched by abundant hair, adds liveliness and spontaneity to the whole. Awarded the Prix de Rome in 1859, Alexandre Falguière was then the renowned sculptor of the Combat de coqs and Tarcisius, two works represented at the Augustins.
After studying at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Alexandre Falguière became the “leader” of Toulouse sculptors (Mercié, Rivière, etc.). Closed for works for the sake of scenography to promote paintings and sculptures, the Musée des Augustins will soon present this work on its site.