Alfred Jean Foretay

ALFRED JEAN FORETAY (Morges, 1861- Geneva, 1944).
Large vase "The Octopus", ca. 1895.
Silver-plated metal alloy.
Signed on the back in Paris.
Bibliography: Philippe DAHHAN, Étains 1900, 200 Sculpteurs de la Belle Époque, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2000, reproduced p. 146, fig. 394 left.
Weight: 10,100 g.
Measurements: 46 x 27 x 22 cm.

The decoration of this vase completely identifiable with the Art Nouveau style is dramatic: a young bather is being caught by an octopus. The side handle is a strapping young man, modeled with the intention of saving her.

Alfred Jean Foretay was a Swiss sculptor and painter who began his career in the office of his father, an architect. At the age of 16, he moved to Paris, where he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts as a student of Alexandre Falguière (he received an honorary mention in 1891 and a gold medal in 1904). Foretay is known for his bronze sculptures, architectural decoration, statuettes and decorative pewter vessels in Art Nouveau style. After a successful career in France, he returned to Switzerland in 1911 to devote himself to architectural sculpture and later turned to Impressionist-style landscape painting. His sculptural work is remarkable for the versatility of his creations and their adaptation to the aesthetics of the end of the century.