Alfred Dubucand (25 November 1828 – 1894) was a French animalier sculptor who worked in the mid-to-late 19th century. His works were often juried into the annual

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

art exhibition in Paris where he contributed works over the course of his career. Dubucand made his debut at the 1867 Salon with a wax model of a dead

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

Early life

Dubucand was born in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, on 25 November 1828. He was one of the prize pupils of

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (; 24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, Barye ...

. Dubucand made his debut at the 1867 Salon with a wax model of a dead

, a rather inauspicious start when considering the higher quality sculptures he would submit later in his career.

Career

He modeled mainly animal groups, producing a number of deer, dog, and horse sculptures. His better casts feature a warm, mid-brown

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze, and similar metals and metal alloys ( tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes), or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen prod ...

tion, sometimes coming in even lighter shades bordering on a very light yellow, being nearly the color of the

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

metal itself. He frequently experimented with chemical patinas, learning the patination process from his teacher and mentor Barye who stretched the boundary with his now-famous dark green patinas. Dubucand paid strict attention to the

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

detail of his subjects, often being so concise that he actually showed the veins in the legs of his

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

and

elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...

sculptures. Realism was certainly one of his strong points as a sculptor of animals. His animals never appear "frozen" and he was able to portray each animal's natural movements and stances. He created his original work in wax or clay and then would cast his pieces in bronze in what is called the

lost wax Lost-wax castingalso called investment casting, precision casting, or ''cire perdue'' (; loanword, borrowed from French language, French)is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cas ...

casting method, although some of his work was completed using the

sand casting Sand casting, also known as sand molded casting, is a metal casting process characterized by using sand—known as ''casting sand''—as the mold material. The term "sand casting" can also refer to an object produced via the sand casting proces ...

method. Many of his orientalist sculptures feature

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

n scenes portraying

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

tribesmen and

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

s aboard horses and

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

s. On some of his casts, his name is shown with a backward or reversed "n", the same situation occurring on certain bronzes by Fratin. While an unusual sight to the eye, such instances of the backward "n" do not create any problems regarding the authenticity or originality of the artwork. Although he would live for another eleven years, Dubucand's final submission to the Salon was ''Cavalier et femme arabes à la fontaine'' in 1883.

Death

Dubucand died in 1894, the month and day being unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubucand, Alfred 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors French animal artists Animal sculptors Painters from Paris 1828 births 1894 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters 19th-century French male artists