LOUIS-ERNEST BARRIAS · (1841–1905)
The Young Girl From Bou Saâda
technical sheet
| ARTIST | Louis-Ernest Barrias |
| DATE | ca. 1890 |
| DIMENSIONS | 31 cm (height) |
| MATERIAL | Dark patinated bronze |
| FOUNDER | Susse Frères, Paris |
| SIGNED | “E. Barrias” / Stamp: “Susse Fres Edts à Paris” |
| PROVENANCE | French private collection |
about the work
Created for the tomb of the Orientalist painter Gustave Guillaumet, The Young Girl from Bou Saâda is a sculptural tribute to the pictorial world of the artist. Barrias draws from the recurring motifs of Guillaumet’s canvases, such as The Weavers, in which young women from Bou Saâda are depicted seated, absorbed in the act of spinning wool.
In his transposition into bronze, Barrias preserves the meditative posture but replaces the distaff and wool with a bouquet of flowers. This subtle displacement transforms a scene of daily life into a poetic allegory: the young girl, her eyes half-closed, embodies a silent offering, full of gentleness and contemplation.
The version of 71 cm in the Musée Camille Claudel combined marble with precious inlays of turquoise and mother-of-pearl. Our gilded bronze example of 31 cm offers a more intimate interpretation of this Orientalist masterpiece, in which the elegance of the drapery and the delicacy of the gesture reveal the full mastery of Barrias.
the ARTIST
Louis-Ernest Barrias
1841 – 1905
Born on April 13, 1841, in Paris, Louis-Ernest Barrias was the son of a porcelain painter. He followed the path opened twenty years earlier by his brother Félix-Joseph (1822–1907), winner of the Grand Prix for painting in 1844. The young Louis-Ernest initially trained as a painter in the studio of Léon Cogniet before turning to sculpture under the guidance of François Jouffroy.
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