BOUCHER Alfred (1850-1934)

His talent for sculpture was discovered by his parent's employer, who happenned to be the sculptor Ramus and who decided to train him. He then got introduced to art and antics during his stay in Rome and then perfected his naturalist works based on themes such as childhood and peasantry, while producing a few monuments and religious statues. His work then got influenced by the symbolist movement of the end of the century. He worked on different materials such as plaster, terracotta, marble and bronze that where cast by famous foundries like Susse and Siot-Decauville, or Leblanc-Barbedienne. In 1902, he founded a mythical place, 'La Ruche des Arts', a club for young talents, a must, within which grew futur artists from the Ecole de Paris such as Chagall or Soutine. Surprisingly, and despite Boucher's classical formation, La Ruche des Arts mostly attracted young and modernist artists. According to his own words, he felt like a hen brooding a clutch of ducklings.