Medardo Rosso The Mischief or Gavroche Impressionist sculpture of a laughing boy. The half-bust figure of the laughing boy, wearing a cap and facing left, is screwed to a plate, cast with the sculpture, on a circular base of turned and ebonised wood. In good condition, with a dark patina, this Italian figurative sculpture is signed M. Rosso in block letters on the left shoulder. The lost-wax casting dates from the early decades of the 20th century. Medardo Rosso – Turin, 21 June 1858 – Milan, 31 March 1928 – was an Italian sculptor and one of the leading exponents of Impressionism in sculpture. Medardo Rosso presented the first version of this work in 1882 in Milan, at the Esposizione di Belle Arti di Brera, with the title Dopo una scappata, and the following year at the Esposizione Internazionale di Roma. The title Gavroche, which first appeared in 1886 at the Second Annual Salon of the Société des Artistes Français, was given by the artist after his move to Paris in 1889, in reference to the Parisian boy who died fighting on the barricades in 1832, as described by Victor Hugo in “Les Misérables”. In 1910, a specimen of this subject was exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in Florence under the title Le sale gosse and later under the name Le sale gosse rieur.