Joseph-Antoine Bernard (1866-1931) Young girl Model created around 1906 Proof in bronze with a brown-green patina Signed " J BERNARD " on the terrace Published by Hébrard before 1934 Bears the founder's stamp " A.A. HEBRARD CIRE PERDUE ". Bears a handwritten inscription on the bronze " cire perdue Hébrard / J Bernard 90.000 ". H. 55 cm, on a marble base H. 3,5 cm The general composition of this nude woman entitled Young Youth is in keeping with the reflection of one of the most famous models of the Isère sculptor Joseph Bernard, that of the Great Bacchante, which seems to have occupied the artist for many years at the beginning of the 20th century. In its original version presented in 1912 at the Salon d'Automne, the young priestess of Bacchus holds a pampre in her hands in a dance-like movement. The positioning of the feet in internal rotation results in a falsely unstable attitude that is often encountered in the sculptor's art (Young Girl with a Jug or Water Bearer, a model created in 1910). It gives the figure a light and youthful dynamism that manifests, beyond a bacchanalian scene, the artist's predilection for the theme of dance and his fascination for the body in movement. Our figure has a longer barrel, a more supple gesture and a more graceful attitude than the bronze reduction known as Petite Bacchante, which was published in 1919 and originally numbered 25. Without the presence of the pampers in the hands of our young woman, the undulation spreading from the bent arm to the right hand against the cheek and up to the elbow raised above the head is subtly accentuated. The relief of the Feast of the Pampers carved in Lens stone in direct carving (203 x 161 x 45 cm, Saint-Rémy- Lès-Chevreuse, collection of the Fondation de Coubertin), the drawing of the Draped Young Woman (ink on satin paper, dim. 26,8 x 11,5 cm, Bernard-Doutrelandt family) and the two Etudes pour la faunesse (ink and pencil on satin paper, 52,3 x 21 cm and ink and pencil on satin paper, 52,4 x 21cm, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuses, collection of the Fondation de Coubertin), all presenting models of the faunesse with the same attitude, but without a tassel, allow us to date the creation of our model to around 1906/1910 The edition was taken care of by the famous publisher and art dealer Hébrard, the same one who organized an exhibition dedicated to the artist in his gallery in 1908. The edition was initially intended to be ten copies, but it seems that it was unfinished and only three were listed in 1934. Related works: - Joseph-Antoine Bernard, Petite bacchante ou Faunesse ou Jeune faunesse, ca. 1911, Asian marble, H. 59 cm, Bernard-Doutrelandt Family, inv. no. CR 177. - Joseph Antoine Bernard, La fête des Pampres, 1906-1907, Lens stone, direct cut, size 203 x 161 x 45 cm, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuses, Fondation de Coubertin collections. - Joseph Antoine Bernard, Grand Bacchante ou Jeune faunesse, between 1912 and 1919, dim 173,5 x 45 x 51 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, n° inv. RF 4611. Related literature: - René Jullian, Jean Bernard, Lucien Stoenesco Pascale Grémont Gervaise, Joseph Bernard, Ed. Fondation de Coubertin, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuses, 1989, an illustrated copy p.146 under n°63, p.403 and model listed under n°85 p.284. - Sylvie Carlier, Alice Massé, Joseph Bernard. De pierre et de volupté, catalog of the exhibition held at the Paul Dini museum, Villefranche sur Saône from October 18, 2020 to April 25, 2021, n° 129, 170, 171, 172, p.214, pp.255-257, p.334, p.336. - Claire Barbillon, L'anti-bacchante, entre perte d'identité et figures d'ambiguïté, p.171, in Bacchanales modernes, le nu, l'ivresse et la danse dans l'art français du xixe siècle, catalog of the exhibition held from July 1 to October 3, 2016 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux and Ville d'Ajaccio-Palais Fresch Museum of Fine Arts, Silvana Editoriale, pp.174-175.