Paul Dubois, “florentine Singer,” 1865, Bronze

Paul Dubois, “Florentine Singer,” 1865, bronze

Paul Dubois (1829 Nogent-sur-Seine - 1905 Paris), Florentine Singer, 1865. Brown patinated bronze. 
Bronze dimensions: 49.5 cm (height) x 20 cm (length) x 10 cm (width), weight 5.6 kg. 
Inscribed on base “P.[aul] DUBOIS,” dated “1865,” with foundry mark “F. BARBEDIENNE FONDEUR” and initials “REDUCTION MECANIQUE A. COLLAS.”

The bronze is a precisely executed and masterfully cast contemporary reduction of Paul Dubois' masterpiece “Florentine Singer,” 155 cm high and on display at the Musée d'Orsay, for which the artist was awarded the medal of honor at the 1865 Paris Salon. The work served as a beacon and was followed by a plethora of representations of young men.
Inspired by Donatello and Luca della Robbia, as well as painters such as Piero della Francesca, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Pinturicchio, the “Florentine Singer” is not an epigonal work that pays homage to a vanished era, but a successful attempt to draw vitality from the art of the past and give it new life.
The effect of vitality is at the heart of the artistic theory of the Italian Renaissance. To realize itself as art, art had to appear like nature. This naturalism also characterizes the “Florentine Singer.”