Alfred Boucher
(Nogent-sur-Seine 1850-1934 Aix-les-Bains)

Au But!, 1886

(To the Goal)
Bronze, green over dark red-brown patina
Signed 'A. Boucher', with the foundry stap 'Siot-Paris' and stamped '644L'
Lifetime cast, ca. 1920
H. 68,5cm, l. 101cm, d. 51,5cm

The plaster version of 'Au But' otherwise know as ‘Les Coureurs’ was exhibited at the Salon of 1886 in Paris and won a first class medal. Many critics commended the sculptor’s talent and Paul Leroi wrote of the piece in L’Art, ”a plaster group with an extreme vigour, an admirable intensity of life, the greatest movement, and a rare suppleness of modeling, in short, one of the masterpieces which honours French Art”. The state awarded Boucher the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and commissioned a life-size version for the Luxemburg Gardens.

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