PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION, CALIFORNIA
Lot 13AW
ARISTIDE MAILLOL(1861-1944)Torse de Marie
14 May 2025, 17:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$279,900 inc. premium
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ARISTIDE MAILLOL (1861-1944)
Torse de Marie
signed with the artist's monogram, inscribed with the foundry mark and numbered 'Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris. 3/6' (on the back of the legs)
bronze with green patina
37 1/4 in (94.6 cm) (height)
Conceived in 1930. This version cast before 1952 by the Alexis Rudier Foundry, Paris in an edition of 6
signed with the artist's monogram, inscribed with the foundry mark and numbered 'Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris. 3/6' (on the back of the legs)
bronze with green patina
37 1/4 in (94.6 cm) (height)
Conceived in 1930. This version cast before 1952 by the Alexis Rudier Foundry, Paris in an edition of 6
Footnotes
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Olivier Lorquin.
Provenance
Elizabeth A. Keck Collection, Bel Air.
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
W. George, Aristide Maillol, Neuchâtel, 1977, p. 190 (another cast illustrated).
Aristide Maillol, widely celebrated for his archetypal sculptures of the female nude form, believed that true beauty could be achieved through the perfection of line and simplicity of form. As a result, Maillol was continually revising and refining his plastic realizations of the pure female form, achieving a sculptural monumentality that defied academic tradition and stylistic delineation.
The present work, conceived at the height of the sculptor's career in 1930, showcases an idealized nude form of voluptuous repose. The figure is modeled off of Maillol's housemaid, Marie, who appears frequently throughout the sculptural oeuvre of the artist and in many of his most renowned works. Torse de Marie is from a series of nymphs Maillol produced in the 1930s in preparation for his celebrated Les trois Nymphes (1930-1937), which was first exhibited at the Petit Palais in Paris. While the arrangement of the three female figures in Les trois Nymphes evokes the classical iconography of the Three Graces, Maillol believed that their robust physicality was too powerful to represent them, insisting that they were the nymphs of the 'flowery meadows' rather than the Graces. The powerful physicality of Les trois Nymphes referenced by Maillol is evident in the striking beauty and sensuous grace emanating from the idealized Torse de Marie, a study used to realize the figures of the two flanking nymphs.
As seen in the present work, many of the studies for Les trois Nymphes were done without arms and heads. In fact, Maillol notably admired the iconic Venus de Milo sculpture in the Louvre even more because of its missing arms, which he felt would: "add nothing to its beauty; on the contrary they would probably detract from it" (quoted in B. Lorquin, Maillol, New York, 1995, p. 112). As such, it was general practice for Maillol to begin his figures by first modelling the torso, only moving on to the head and limbs once he was satisfied with the balance of the body's principal element. Heavily influenced by the classical tradition in sculpture, Maillol's works often drew from the simplified, youthful naturalism and essential beauty found in classical Greek sculpture. The present bronze version of Torse de Marie was conceived in 1930 and cast before 1952 by the Alexis Rudier Foundry, Paris in an edition of 6.
