Colombina-bust In Bronze With Double Patina.circa 1893. Ernest Seger

Ernst SEGER (Neurode, Silesia, 1868-Munich, 1939) - Columbine, or The Masked Ball, circa 1893. Bronze bust with double brown and gilded patina on molded pedestal with quadrangular base. Signed on the edge, right side in cursive letters "E.Seger". Undated. Old cast iron.
Modeled with jubilation and frankness, this bust of a young woman is immediately striking with its spontaneous, jubilant character.
 Wearing one of those fanciful, incredible headgear adorned with follies, tinkling bells with which the ravishing worldly or elegant women of the last century loved to adorn themselves during wild calvacades, this effigy of a young woman disguised as an ingénue Colombine is endowed of a fresh and joyful sensuality.
 Represented in bust, the three-quarter head rolled on the shoulder in a lively movement, the young woman offers a radiant face of mischievous gaiety suggested by her eyes with their mischievous expression, her half-open mouth letting a radiant smile. Her dense hair with strands running casually across her forehead, her nape, her opulent throat, her energetically twisted neck accentuate this thrilling feeling of playfulness. Treated with great freedom of style, the sparkling rustle of the strawberry, the pleated undulation of the collar, the enveloping hat with the brims punctuated with fluttering bells create a sensation of twirling. At the heart of this swirling composition, the artist has judiciously placed one of the spicy attributes of Columbine's costume: The Wolf with which the young woman seems to be flirting.