This gilded bronze statuette represents the Buddha Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha known as the Enlightened One. It belongs to the Udayana type, considered one of the oldest iconographic types of the Buddha.
The Buddha stands on a bronze pedestal. His serene face, with half-closed eyes and a slight smile, expresses inner peace. His raised right hand makes the gesture known as Abhaya Mudra, the gesture of fearlessness, while the lowered left hand adopts the Varada Mudra, the gesture of serenity.
The Buddha is dressed in a long monastic robe with stylized folds. He bears the urna on his forehead. His hair, carefully arranged in a high bun adorned with the ushnisha, still shows traces of blue polychromy, topped here with an inlaid pearl, inspired by the iconography of the Buddhas of Gandhara, which greatly influenced it.
According to legend, King Udayana of India was the first to have a sculpture made of the Buddha during his lifetime, in order to preserve his spiritual presence.
A comparable statue, dated to the reign of Emperor Xuande (1426–1435), is kept at the Cernuschi Museum in Paris (inv. M.C. 686).

Provenance:

Private collection of Mr. Auguste Gérard (1852–1922), station chief in Beijing (1893–1897), then French ambassador to Japan (1907–1913).
By descent to the current owner.
The work could correspond to the “Gilded bronze Buddha” mentioned on line 18, p.1 of the inventory of objects entrusted by Auguste Gérard to Viscount Paul du Toict, 25 Boulevard du Régent, Brussels, in 1906.
Historical note:

Viscount Paul du Toict (1847–1909) was a member of the administrative commission of the Royal Society of Fine Arts of Brussels, which organized exhibition salons. He was also a former president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Belgium.