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Maurice Bouval "Obsession et Rêve" (Dream and Obsession) pair of Candlesticks
$22,500
A pair of French gilt bronze candelabra, "Obsession et Rêve" (Dream and Obsession), by Maurice Bouval. Each candelabrum is in the shape of a female figural supported by two irises, where the candles may be placed. One leaf from the stem provides these nudes with a minimal amount of modesty. Bouval's figure of Obsession leans forward and pushes back her hair provocatively while Reve leans languidly against a bloom. Each iris is carefully chased with veining, demonstrating Bouval’s prodigious skill.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: S-20962
Artist: Maurice Bouval
Country: France
Circa: 1898
Dimensions: 17.5" height, 9.5" diameter
Materials: Gilt Bronze, Marble
Signed: "M. Bouval" on the base, and bearing the founders name "Thiebaut Fres Paris" on a bronze plate the underside.''
Literature: Similar candelabra pictured in: The Paris Salons 1895-1915, Vol. V: Objects d'Art and Metalware, by Alastair Duncan, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1999, p. 126.
Bouval's Reve et Obsession refers to two poems from Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal (1857), "Obsession" and "Reve Parisien." Baudelaire's poem "Reve Parisien" details a fanciful neoclassical vision of nature where naiads play in a world of jewels.