Marcel-Andre Bouraine - An Art Deco French bronze figurine , circa 1925, depicting a stylish dancer balancing a bronze ball, with a patinated finish, mounted on a striated white marble plinth.
Marcel-Andre Bouraine (French 1886-1948) Born in Pontoise (Seine-et Oise), Bouraine studied under Jean-Alexndre-Joseph Falguiere (1881 - 1900), who had reintroduced and emphasized realism in nineteenth-century sculpture. Bouraine was captured in Germany during the First World War, and interned in Switzerland. In 1922, he exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries and the following year he began to exhibit at the Salon d'Autommne. He executed small-scale sculptures for several French firms, including Susse Freres, Max Le Verrier and Austria's Arthur Goldscheider, often exhibiting with the latter's La Stele and L'Evolution groups. In 1928 Gabriell Argy-rousseau (1885- 1953) commissioned a number of figurines from Bouraine, mostly female nudes, but also a fountain and an illuminated group, all of which were executed in coloured, translucent pate de verre glass. He executed two major commissions for the 1937 Paris International Exhibition.