A white marble sculpture “Jeune femme allaitante” - image-1

Lot 265 Dα

A white marble sculpture “Jeune femme allaitante”

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 12.000 € - 15.000 €
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A white marble sculpture “Jeune femme allaitante”

White Carrara marble. A full figure depiction of a seated young woman breastfeeding, hewn from the marble block in “non-finito” technique. Inscribed in capital letters on the right: “À ALFRED FOURCROY EN SOUVENIR DE MON TRÈS CHER PÈRE DONT IL EUT L'AMITIÉ ET L'ESTIME ET EN TEMOIGNAGE DE MA PROFONDE GRATITUDE JUILLET - AOUT 1948 Elsa de Soete”- H 55.8 cm.
Pierre de Soete, 1948.

Pierre de Soete (1886 - 1948) is considered one of the most important Belgian sculptors of the modern era. Orphaned at an early age, de Soete began his training at Académie de dessin in Molenbeek at just 14 years of age. He started working as a freelance sculptor in 1924. One of his most famous commissions was a radiator cap figure for the Belgian car manufacturer "Minerva", for which he received an award at the Salon de l'automobile in Paris in 1921. De Soete appears to have sculpted this depiction of the "Jeune femme allaitant" (also called Maternité) numerous times. The version shown here is distinguished by the extremely personal inscription on the base, dedicated to his wife Elsa.