Lot 10: ARISTIDE MAILLOL

ARISTIDE MAILLOL 1861 - 1944 TORSE DE L'ACTION ENCHAINÉE Inscribed with the artist's monogram M, with the foundry mark C. Valsuani Cire Perdue and numbered 1/6 Bronze height: 48 in. 122 cm Conceived in 1905 and cast during the artist's lifetime.

Andrew Carduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, New York, 1952, illustration of another cast pp. 76-77

Carola Giedion-Welcker, Contemporary Sculpture: An Evolution in Volume and Space, New York, 1955, illustration of another cast p. 24

Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol et l'âme de la sculpture, New York, 1965, illustration of another cast p. 142

Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, Paris, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 60

Michel Bouille, Maillol, la femme toujours recommencée, Paris, 1989, illustration of another cast pp. 36-37

Bertrand Lorquin, Maillol, London, 1995, illustration of another cast p. 57

Dina Vierny, Paris

Perls Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)

Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Ltd., New York

Acquired from the above in 1974

Torse de l'Action enchainée derives from Maillol's full-figure monument to the French revolutionary Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881). It is modeled after the torso of a heroic female figure who struggles to free her hands that are bound behind her back (fig. 1). By focusing specifically on the figure's center of mass, Maillol demonstrates how her muscular torso retains all of the forcefulness of this act of defiance.

Discussing the Metropolitan Museum's acquisition of another cast of Torse in 1929, Preston Remington wrote the following about this sculpture: "The torso of L'Action enchainée shows Maillol at his best as a consummate master of the human form. From the standpoint of accurate observation it is impeccable; but on the other hand, it is in no sense a mere physiological study. The torso is typical of Maillol's art in that it both respects and transcends the realm of visual reality. It is a prime example of the use of the nude as a vehicle for expression of intellectual symbolism" (P. Remington, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, vol. XXIV, no. 11, November 1929).