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THBARISTIDE MAILLOL, (French, 1869-1944), Jeunesse (Youth)
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About Auction
LiveJun 11, 2017 - Jun 12, 2017
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- Lot Description
ARISTIDE MAILLOL
(French, 1869-1944)
Jeunesse (Youth)
conceived 1910/25, cast 1951, bronze
signed A MAILLOL, marked Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris, numbered No 4.
height: 102 cm.
Provenance: A & R Ball Works of Art, New York; Estate of Helene Rabb Cahners, Boston, Massachusetts.
Exhibitions: "Maillol at Galerie Daber", Paris, 1961, cat. no. 10, plate XVI.
Other Notes: Grogan & Company thanks Dr. Ursel Berger for the following commentary:
Jeunesse (Youth) was the first large torso in Maillol's oeuvre: a first version in plaster existed in 1910 and was exhibited in 1911. Maillol limited the edition to four figures: A marble sculpture (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and three bronzes were realized in the 1920ies. The first bronze is obviously the torso in the Kunsthaus Zürich, acquired and exhibited in 1925.
A posthumous edition of six bronzes was commissioned in 1949, five years after Maillol died. This edition is documented in the surviving books of the Alexis Rudier Foundry. This very famous foundry was owned by Eugène Rudier, son of Alexis, who started to cast for Maillol in the 1920's. During the war he exclusively did cast all Maillol bronzes. Rudier had close connections with Aristide Maillol and also with his heir, Lucien Maillol, the son of the artist. There is no doubt, that the bronzes, cast in the late 1940s and 1950s were ordered by the legal heir of Maillol.
Several figures of the edition of six are held in known collections (Chrysler, Hirschhorn). It was not possible to examine all examples in private and public collections, but these figures were purchased in the years after the edition had been cast. The last bronze from this edition numbered 6/6 was sold by Dina Vierny to the New York art dealer Otto Gerson (Fine Arts Associates) in 1958 (see attachment). This proves that Dina Vierny was also aware of this edition, which was started by Lucien Maillol.
The present bronze must be an example of the posthumous edition of Jeunesse. It is made in the sand casting procedure, used by Rudier and is marked with the typical signature of this foundry. It is numbered "No 4" in a manner, used frequently at that time. According to the Rudier books, the 4th cast was done in 1951. There the weights of the bronzes are noted: The torsos weigh between 41 and 44 kg; the present bronze has a weight of 42.46kg.
The bronze Jeunesse has a convincing pedigree. It was presented in spring 1961 in the Maillol exhibition of the well known art dealer Alfred Daber, Paris. In the catalogue, the torso is described as the 4th of six casts and presented with a full-page photograph (Cat. No. 10 Plate XVI). In the year of the 100th birthday of Maillol - 1961- Daber arranged a considerable exhibition with a great catalogue. The entry in the catalogue was written by Henri Frère, a close friend of Maillol. This dealer (Daber) had close connections with Lucien Maillol as is evident in several letters in the archive of the National Museum in Copenhagen. Thus, this bronze, shown in 1961 in the Daber Gallery in Paris is a legally authorized one. In the same year 1961 the torso was imported to the USA and sold via the gallery A & R Ball, Works of Art, 30 West 54th St. New York, for $18000 to a private collection, in whose possession it remains.
The present bronze is a good cast with a splendid patina. It is not as fine as the Jeunesse in the Kunsthaus Zürich, a bronze of 1925 (or earlier), maybe finished by Maillol himself. The posthumous torsos were likely cast after another plaster model. Maillol did not always take proper care with his plaster figures. Some were stored in an open shed, some were standing in the garden. Several posthumous bronzes of the years after WWII shows the same characteristics lacking some modeling precision and having surface flaws, the remains of the casting procedure. Compare for example "Cycliste" in New Carlsberg Gallery, Copenhagen, sold by Dina Vierny in 1954, cast in 1950 or 1951 by the Rudier foundry (see attachment). But the torso Jeunesse is a better cast than this figure in Copenhagen. Compare also a plaster model with traces of sand casting (see attachment).
Conclusion: This torso is certainly from the posthumous edition, commissioned by Lucien Maillol in 1949. This cast is the 4th produced by the Alexis Rudier Foundry in 1951, under the direction of Eugène Rudier, who died in 1952.
Berlin, February 25th 2017
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