HENRI CROS (1840-1907) Female Relief Plaque, polychrome enameled stoneware, c. 1895; signed in black ink verso: “H. Cros”, and a scrap of paper from A.A. Hebrard, Paris attached verso; measuring h: 11.25 x w: 9.38 inches.

The symbolist bust in relief of a nude young woman with strawberry blonde hair is a depiction of pensive reverie. With lips slightly pursed, she is lost in thought, looking inward. The female visage hovering just over the nude’s shoulder, perhaps an allusion to a fountain, is by contrast flat and lifeless. With lips parted to reveal a watery blue orifice and wavy tresses of hair blending into a watery expanse, the purely decorative nature of the fountain’s face heightens the physical naturalness of the nude bust while lending it a greater emotional poignancy.

In 1905, A.A. Hebrard opened a gallery located at 8 rue Royale in Paris, where they presented sculpture by artists whose work they produced at their foundry. A vestige of the gallery’s ticket, still affixed to the back of the plaque, helps pinpoint that this piece was made just shortly before the artist’s death in 1907.