CAST BY SIOT-DECAUVILLE FROM A MODEL BY ALFRED BOUCHER (1850-1934), EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The plaster version of 'Au But', otherwise known as 'Les Coureurs', was exhibited at the Salon of 1886 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 modelling, 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 bronze version of Au But. The finished cast was exhibited at the Salon in 1887 (no. 3675), before being placed in the Luxembourg Gardens, where it remained until, sadly, being destroyed during the Nazi occupation. Such was the popularity of this work, it was edited in different sizes, and by various foundries, including Barbedienne, Susse and Siot-Decauville.