ARISTIDE MAILLOL (1861-1944)

Seated Young Woman Covering her Eyes

Bronze proof Signed : ARiSTIDE MAillOl H. 22 ; W. 17 ; D. 6 cm

Provenance

Private Swedish collection

Bibliography

Maillol, collection “Das Meisterwerk,” Gustav Weise Verlag, Berlin, date unknown, repr.n°6. Maillol, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, November 29 – Christmas 1928, repr. p.27. Rewald, John, Maillol, Editions Hypérion, , 1939, repr. n°31. A. Maillol – with an introduction and survey of the artist’s work in the American collections, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1945, n°9, repr. p.68 (copy from the Art Institute of Chicago). des XIXe et XXe siècles, Musées de Poitiers, 1983, repr. p. 89. Berger, Ursel, et Zutter, Jörg,Aristide Maillol, Berlin, Georg-Kolbe Museum, January 14 – May 5, 1996, Lausanne, Musée des Beaux-Arts, May 15 – September 22, 1996, Brême, Gerhard Marcks-Museum, October 6 1996 – January 13, 1997, Manheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, January 25 – March 31 1997, Flammarion, Paris, 1996, repr. p. 40 and p. 86. Maillol, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona, Caixa Catalunya, October 19, 2009 – January 31, 2010, repr. p. 137. Rodin-Maillol, face à face, exhibition catalogue, , Hyacinthe- Rigaud art museum, June 22 – November 3, 2019.

"Maillol is a sculptor as great as the greatest … In this small bronze, you can see enough proof of this for all the world—for the old masters as well as for the young and up-coming … I'm very happy to have seen it … If the wordgenius , inappropriately applied to so many people, still has any meaning today, it is here … Yes, Maillol is a genius of … You'd have to be in bad faith or extremely ignorant not to recognize it." [1]

In 1882, Aristide Maillol left Banyuls-sur-Mer to enter the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the hope of becoming a painter. But he didn't respond well to academic pedagogy, and he developed an aversion to . It was the beginning of a difficult time for the artist, exacerbated by poverty and ill health. One day, going through the Cluny Museum, he discovered the famous series of tapestriesThe Lady and the Unicorn and decided to open a weaving studio in his native city. It was there that he met Clotilde Narcisse, the woman who would become not only his wife, but also his first model.

Immersed in the Banyuls-sur-Mer landscape, Aristide Maillol was surrounded by the elements. He began sculpting a variety of female figures in pieces of wood that he found around his studio, and it was thus that he discovered his passion for statuary art at the end of the 1890s. He went from creating figurines in wood to sculpting them in clay. Unlike his later works, these statuettes were not done before live models. "I did them all without models; I did all my statuettes without models, without even drawings. I did them just like that, you see—I invented them entirely. Which is why they seem so true."[2] The Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes belong to that collection of works.

These statuettes are crucial to Maillol's œuvre; they inaugurate the themes that he would continue to explore throughout the entire length of his career. From 1900 on, Aristide Maillol was prolific, and he produced a great many small female statuettes. Historians often contrast this period of great productivity with the end of his career, when the sculptor took several years to complete his works. Maillol had his first success in 1902, thanks to an exhibition of his works at the Vollard gallery. His friend Edouard Vuillard introduced him to the dealer, and it was a meeting that was to prove decisive for the sculptor's future. Ambrose Vollard was one of the first people to buy some of his figurines, later casting them in bronze. During the exhibition, Maillol's work was praised by both and Rodin. The plaster model of Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes belonged to Octave Mirbeau; it is reproduced under the titlePudeur (Modesty)[3] in the catalogue for the sale of the writer's collection (February 24, 1919).

These statuettes were very successful at the time. On December 20, 1905, Maillol sold a group of seven of them to , includingFemme assise le bras replié autour de la tête (Seated Woman with Arm Wrapped Around Her Head) also known asYoung Woman Seated Covering her Eyes. Because of the sale contract, Vollard was legally able to edition the work in an unlimited number, following the tradition of bronze dealers in the 19th century. Their contract specifically stipulated that Vollard was buying "the rights to editioning and reproduction," which explicitly means that the sculptor renounced his personal rights to reproduce his work.[4] As a consequence, the number of proofs made of Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes is difficult to determine. For his bronze editions from 1909 on, Ambroise Vollard worked with the Parisian foundry of Florentin Godard, a specialist in sand castings. Works produced under this system of production, of which our proof is one, usually do not carry a founder's stamp; Florentin Godard's foundry activities ended sometime in the 1930s.[5]

It was in the context of this system of production at the beginning of the 20th century that Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes was done. It depicts a naked young woman seated on a rock, her legs stretched out, leaning on one hand while her right arm is folded around her head to hide her face. "This statuette [ … ] is very symbolist in theme and reminds us that Maillol was close to the Nabis group and was of the same generation. The figurines in the first group that Maillol sculpted were often compared to Tanagra figurines because of their dense, slender forms. The artist went on to create more angular compositions with strict, almost severe, verticalities such as we find inPudeur . But even in this rather rectilinear approach, we can already see the elements that would make Maillol's fame, his exploration of synthesis."[6] Maillol further pursued the theme of the seated woman in his La piece Méditerranée ( The Mediterranean Sea), a highlight of the 1905 Salon d'Autonme. The Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes could equally be compared to another small statuette from the same period titled Nu allongé (Reclining Nude), dating from the beginning of the 20th century.[7] The young woman is depicted in a semi-reclining posture, under a drapery. While her right leg is raised, her right breast is hidden by her right arm; her face is turned away from the viewer in a gesture of modesty.

A number of proofs ofYoung Woman Seated Covering her Eyes are held in public collections, including the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (Inv. H.CK-1718)[8], the Sainte-Croix museum in Poitiers (Inv. 953.11.73)[9], the Art Institute of Chicago (Inv.1934.383 )[10], and the museum of modern and contemporary art in Strasbourg (Inv. 55.974.0.953)[11]

There are, in addition, other proofs of thisYoung Woman Seated Covering her Eyes in different materials held in various public collections. The Städtische Galerie in Frankfurt am Main in Germany has a stucco proof of the statuette, and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (Netherlands) has a copy in varnished terra cotta (Inv. KM 122.310)[12]

[1] Octave Mirbeau, Aristide Maillol, Paris, Société des dilettantes, 1921, p. 29. [2] Berger, Ursel, and Zutter, Jörg,Aristide Maillol, exhibition catalogue, Flammarion, Paris, 1996, p. 40. [3] Rodin-Maillol, face à face, exhibition catalogue, Perpignan, Hyacinthe- Rigaud museum, June 22 to November 3, 2019, p. 131 or available on line on the site of the INHA library: https://bibliotheque- numerique.inha.fr/viewer/32321/?offset=#page=53&viewer=picture&o=bookmarks&n=0&q= [4] Expert certification by Ursel Berger, September 8, 2019. Before the law of April 9, 1910, the right to reproduce a work passed automatically to the buyer (see Élisabeth Lebon, Dictionnaire des fondeurs de bronzes d'art 1890- 1950, Marjon éditions, 2003, p. 91). [5] In herDictionnaire des fondeurs de bronzes d'art France 1890-1950 (Marjon éditions, 2003, p. 166), Élisabeth Lebon states that Florentin Godard's activities ended around 1933-1937. [6] Blandine Chavanne, "Pudeur," inSculptures des XIXe and XXe siècles, Musées de Poitiers, 1983, p. 89. [7] Rewald, John, Maillol, Editions Hypérion, Paris, 1939, repr. #25. [8] Aristide Maillol, Girl Covering her Face with her Hand, 1905, bronze, H. 22 cm, Inv. H.CK-1718. [9] Aristide Maillol, Pudeur, 1900, 22 x 18 x 5.7 cm, signed on the back of the seat ARISTIDE MAILLOL, Inv. 953.11.73. [10] Aristide Maillol, Girl with Arm over her Eyes, 1900, bronze, signed on the back of the base "Aristide Maillol," 21.3 x 17.5 x 6.5 cm, Inv. 1934.383. [11] Aristide Maillol,Femme nue assise sur un rocher (c. 1905) patinaed bronze, 21.5 x 16.3 x 5.5 cm. [12] Aristide Maillol,Young Woman Seated Covering her Eyes (c. 1900), varnished terra cotta, 20.7 x 6.5 x 17 cm, Inv.KM 122.310.