Lot 243 D

In the final three years of his life – as a legacy, so to speak – Georges Braque created a series of around 100 gouaches, which were intended to serve as models for later three-dimensional reproduction. Braque provided each of these gouaches with handwritten authorisation for their reproduction by the jeweller Heger de Loewenfeld: this also applies to the 1962 gouache “Aréion”, on which the bronze offered by us is based.
Loewenfeld would become the dominant manufacturer of artistic jewellery based on designs by Braque, and a major exhibition was held at the Palais du Louvre shortly before Braque’s death in 1963. Following Loewenfeld’s death in 2000, Armand Israël became his legal successor; Loewenfeld had already been working closely with him since 1994 on the continuing release of editions of the gouaches that had become known under the name “Métamorphoses” and, from that point on, commissioned not just jewellery but also ceramics, tapestries, sculptures and mosaics after Braque.
“Aréion” is named after the horse from Greek mythology, which was produced through the pairing of Demeter and Poseidon, both in the form of horses. Aréion saved King Adrastus of Argos’s life when he fled on his chariot following his unsuccessful campaign against Thebes.