Peasant Woman Scattering Seed

Subject & Artistic Inspiration

• Subject: “La Semeuse” (The Sower). The central figure is an allegorical peasant woman wearing rural dress, an apron/bonnet, and carrying a draped seed sack (sac semoir) across her shoulder while scattering grain across plowed ground.
• Artistic Connection: The imagery is directly inspired by 19th-century French Realist and Barbizon School agricultural motifs—most famously popularized by Jean-François Millet’s The Sower (Le Semeur, 1850) and Oscar Roty’s iconic La Semeuse (the allegorical sowing maiden designed in the 1890s for French coinage and postage). Agricultural allegories celebrating fertility, labor, and industry were popular themes for French decorative arts in this period.

Maker & Attribution

The inkstand is signed. Looking closely at the front left corner on the scalloped base, the signature “A. BOSSU” is cast into the metalwork.

• Sculptor / Designer: Antoine Bossu (active late 19th to early 20th century). Bossu was a Franco-Belgian decorative sculptor known for designing ornate, allegorical, and equestrian desk garnitures and inkstands during the Belle Époque era.
• Signature Location: Incised/cast along the outer front-right scalloped rim beneath the inkpot.

Origin & Date

• Origin: France or Belgium (Continental Europe).
• Period: Circa 1880–1905 (Late 19th century / Belle Époque / early Art Nouveau transition).
• Material & Construction: Cast spelter (régule / zinc alloy), finished in a multi-tone bronzed and cold-painted patina, mounted with two urn-form hinged inkwells containing white porcelain/ceramic liners.