FRENCH SCULPTURE CENSUS / RÉPERTOIRE DE SCULPTURE FRANÇAISE

BOURDELLE, Émile-Antoine Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne 1861 - Le Vésinet, Yvelines 1929

Maker: Susse

Pénélope Penelope 1909 bronze, dark green patina

statue

1 3 47 ?8 x 17 x 14 ?4 in. left side of base: monogrammed lower left, back of base: Susse Freres Fondeurs Paris

Acc. No.: AP 1969.03 Credit Line: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Photo credit: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas © Artist :

Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum www.kimbellart.org

Provenance

Acquired by Gaston Baheux [died, Paris, 1968], possibly directly from the artist, sold by André Pacitti on behalf of Baheux's heirs to Pintura Establishment, Vaduz, Liechtenstein 1969, purchased through Pintura Establishment, Vaduz, Liechtenstein by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth Bibliography

Museum's website, 29 April 2010

1981 Handbook Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection, 1981, p. 167, repr.

2003 Potts Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection, Editor: Timothy Potts, Director, 2003, p. 143, repr.

Related works

Taller version (H. 96 in): casts in Paris, Musée Bourdelle : Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum; Jerusalem Museum; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Canberra, Australian National Gallery; Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art.

Comment

Museum's website, 29 April 2010: Bourdelle is generally acclaimed as the most important heir to Rodin, in whose studio he was an assistant from 1893 until 1908. Upon his separation from Rodin, however, he sought direct inspiration in the work of the famous Neoclassical painter Ingres, a native of the sculptor’s own hometown of Montauban. Bourdelle sculpted a portrait of Ingres in 1908 while developing Penelope, the pose of which, based on ancient Roman models, was among Ingres’s favorites.

In Bourdelle’s earliest versions, Penelope held a spindle to identify her as the steadfast wife of Odysseus, who, in Homer’s epic account of the Trojan War, endures the long absence of her warrior husband by weaving a shroud. In the fully evolved, half-scale Kimbell version, the figure’s identity as Penelope is manifest only from the ancient Greek costume and meditative pose. Both the elimination of the spindle prop and the pose with arms brought close to the body contribute to the sculpture’s columnlike silhouette. Indeed, the heavy woolen pleats of Penelope’s chiton are like the fluting on a Doric column.