ATTRIBUTED to Antoine RABANY dit LE ZOUAVE (1844-1919). Scul - Lot 152

ATTRIBUTED to Antoine RABANY dit LE ZOUAVE (1844-1919). Sculpture known as "Barbu-Müller" representing a man's head with bulging eyes and long hair. Volcanic rock. H: 53 cm. Provenance: Private collection. Barbus Müller" are very rare on the market. Little is known about these mysterious sculptures, probably from Auvergne, carved in granite or volcanic stone. They were discovered in a Paris antique shop in 1939 by the renowned African art dealer Charles Ratton, who brought them to the attention of Josef Mueller. The founder of the Barbier-Mueller collection believed they came from the Vendée region, while others thought they came from faraway lands lulled by forgotten primitive cults. Jean Dubuffet named them Barbus Müller and exhibited them in 1947 at the Foyer de l'Art Brut in Paris. They are in fact the work of a self-taught artist, Antoine Rabany, known as "le Zouave", a farmer and former soldier who exhibited his creations in his garden in Chambon-sur-Lac, Auvergne. On Tuesday October 10, the Tajan auction house in Paris offered three of these singular works.