Lot 303: GUSTAVE HIERHOLTZ

GUSTAVE HIERHOLTZ (1877-1948) AN INDOCHINESE BUDDHIST MONK SIGNED AND DATED 1920 ON THE BACK OF THE RIGHT SLEEVE BRONZE 47.5 by 45 by 29 cm.; 18 1/2 by 17 1/2 by 11 1/4 in.

Private Collection, France

Swiss artist, Gustave Hierholtz was a student of the famous French sculptor Rodin. After winning the illustrious Abd-el-Tif prize in 1912, he became the Director of the Hanoi Applied Art School (École Professionnelle de Hanoi) from 1919-1930. Under Hierholtz's direction, young Vietnamese art students like Le Pho, Mai Thu, Vu Cao Dam were taught the foundations of art and were prepared to enter the admissions competition for the new Ecole des Beaux Arts d'Indochine, which opened in 1925. Hierholtz's Vietnamese period sculptures are rare, which makes the present work, a bronze bust of a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, depicted in a meditative state, with his eyes closed, a rather unusual presentation of the classical portrait. Beautifully executed with an original patina, this sculpture conveys a fine European artist's fond appreciation of Vietnam, its culture and people. Gustave Hierholtz is in the permanent collection of various museums in France, among them Musée du Quai Branly.