HEBERT, Louis-Philippe (1850-1917)
"Fleur des bois, car son cœur fut pris par un guerrier blanc"
Bronze with brown patina
Signed and dated on the base: Philipp Hébert, 1897
H: 54cm - 21.25"
L: 39cm - 15.5"
l: 17.5cm - 7"

"As with 'Fleur des Bois', a statue cast several years previously in 1897, 'Soupir du Lac' represents an almost nude young Indian girl standing in a resting pose. [...] Hébert is probably the first sculptor from Quebec to become interested in the Amerindian nations. 'Halte dans la Forêt' (no.206) and 'pêcheurs à la Nigogue' produced for the Legislature but scaled down in 1916, portrayed Indian life before the arrival of Europeans. Except for 'Sans Merci' (number 197), where an Indian is shown attacking a colonist, Hebert's portrayals of Indians correspond to the image of a "noble savage" established by Jean-Jacques Rousseau at the end of the 18th century and disseminated largely by the romantic ideals of the time. With 'Soupir du Lac' and 'Fleur des Bois' the savage and natural life of the Indians is already corrupted by the arrival of the White man: the young Indian girl in the 'Fleur des Bois' yearns for her French lover.
The figure in 'Soupir du Lac' wonders enigmatically about the deeds of the French. In addition to the Indian theme and very popular at the time in the United Stated, as can be seen by the number of works which he dedicated to the Columbian Exhibition of Chicago in 1893, these statuettes are also works of a wanton character. The exotic nature of the subject allows the sculptor to create an almost nude figure, to become interested in feminine forms and to pursue a necessarily more limited aesthetic research in the case of the commemorative monuments. Indeed, except for her loincloth, and the features of her face, especially the aquiline nose, the young Indian could have been a study of anatomy drawn from a life model during a stay in Paris."
Ref: "Le Musée du Québec - 500 oeuvres choisies", Gouvernement du Québec, 1983, p.172