Aristide Maillol - Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux) - image-1
Aristide Maillol - Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux) - image-2
Aristide Maillol - Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux) - image-1Aristide Maillol - Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux) - image-2

Lot 45 Nα

Aristide Maillol - Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux)

Auction 1155 - overview Cologne
19.06.2020, 18:00 - Modern and Contemporary Art - Evening Sale
Estimate: 30.000 € - 35.000 €
Result: 37.500 € (incl. premium)

Aristide Maillol

Baigneuse se coiffant (Femme les deux mains aux cheveux)
1905

Bronze Height 38.1 cm Joined monogramm 'AM' (in circle) on back of base. Without foundry mark. One of the pieces exclusively cast by Florentin Godard from 1909 till into the 1930s from an unnumbered (unlimited) edition. Life-time cast. Edition Ambroise Vollard, Paris. - With fine bronze-coloured patina, partially lightened.

Maillol's 1905 nude “Baigneuse se coiffant” is a standing female figure with her hands raised into her long, loose hair. The hair falls down her back in a narrow tress that, as a motif, recalls Matisse's famous monumental reliefs “Nu de dos l-IV” (1908-1930), particularly in the tilt of the head, which has been shifted away from the vertical axis of the body and rests on the inside of her left elbow. The open and divergent movement within the closed contours of the figure, which is not entirely stretched out, develops a hint of sensuality and drama that is not characteristic of Maillol's early figurines. A contrast between smooth and more agitated surfaces has also been developed in terms of the material. Details of the form are particularly emphasised in this cast through the accents of a nuanced patina.
Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) organised Aristide Maillol's first exhibition in his gallery in 1902: Edouard Vuillard had drawn his attention to his friend's new sculptures. Vollard became an early mentor to Maillol and he is also the one who, shortly thereafter, suggested and initiated the bronze casts after the terracottas - not least in order to effectively financially support Maillol for the first time. Within a few years, around 1900, his gallery had mutated into a pioneering and legendary institution of modern art deliberately sought out by artists, critics, collectors and international museum professionals - not least from Germany. Accompanied by Auguste Rodin, whose admiration of his fellow artist was unreserved, Harry Graf Kessler is said to have met Maillol in person for the first time at Vollard's. In this context it should also be mentioned that Vollard was responsible not only for the reproduction of Maillol's sculptures, but also for the bronze editions of Pierre Bonnard and of Auguste Renoir's late work. These connections become intertwined in Renoir's 1908 portrait of the gallerist, which shows him with a statuette by Maillol in his hands, while the painter himself had sat for the sculptor for a portrait bust the year before, in 1907.

Certificate

With a photo-certificate by Ursel Berger, Berlin, dated 21 April 2020

Provenance

Formerly Jacques O'Hana Gallery, London (1972, acquired there); British private collection, Family estate; Privat possession, Canada

Literature

We would like to thank Olivier Lorquin, Musée Maillol, Fondation Dina Vierny, Paris, for kind comment and confirmatory advice concerning the present bronze figure.