Lot 121: Pierre-Octave Vigoureux , French 1884-1965 Eve and the Serpent stone

signed: PVigoureux stone

measurements note 101.7cm., 40in.

Pierre-Octave Vigoureux's Eve is a dream-like vision. Her body droops and curves and she appears to be in a trance, removed from the narrative elements of the apple she holds in her hand and the snake which follows the line of her form. This is an essentially modernist depiction as the 19th-century concerns of narrative are overtaken by an overwhelming interest in shape and composition.

Vigoureux was a pupil of Hector-Joseph Lemaire at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He began to exhibit at the Salon in 1906, gaining an honourable mention the following year. Numerous works by Vigoureux are held in the collection of the Musée d'art Moderne in Paris.

RELATED LITERATURE
Bénézit, vol. 14, pp. 235-6