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Artist or Maker: Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)

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Provenance: The artist's estate.
Paul Heim, Paris, by whom acquired from the above.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1985.

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Literature: W. George, Aristide Maillol, Neuchâtel, 1965 (another cast illustrated p. 199).
D. Chevalier, Maillol, New York, 1970, p. 79 (another cast illustrated).
J. Rewald, exh. cat., Aristide Maillol: 1861-1944, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1975, no. 88 (another cast illustrated p. 83).
Exh. cat. Exposition Maillol au Japon, Yamanashi, Musée Départmental des Beaux-Arts, 1984, p. 194, no. S-54 (another cast illustrated).
B. Lorquin, Maillol aux Tuileries, Paris, 1991 (another cast illustrated p. 14).
B. Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, London, 1995 (another cast illustrated p. 102).
U. Berger and J. Zutter (ed.), exh. cat., Aristide Maillol, Berlin, Georg-Kolbe-Museum, 1996, no. 80 (another cast illustrated p. 53).

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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Dina Vierny dated Paris, le 25 juin 1984.

The figure of the Femme debout se coiffant had appeared in Maillol's sculpture as early as 1898. This was the very dawn of his sculptures, and his later return to this subject reflects not only its enduring popularity as a subject, but also its importance to the artist as one of his germinal motifs. During the late 1920s, Maillol was asked to create a new version by the famous Danish patron Johannes Rump, whose collection (including the Maillol) would later form a part of Copenhagen's Statens Museum for Kunst. It would appear that it was following this commission, and its success, that Maillol chose to create a new, much larger version in marble, of which the present lot is a bronze. One of these larger examples of Femme debout se coiffant is amongst the statuary displayed in the Tuileries in Paris, whereas the present work, despite its size, has a patina that is the proof that it has never been exposed to the elements.

Maillol's sculptures of women are timeless yet modern. The grace of eternity and the down-to-earth quality of the modern Mediterranean peasant were united in stylised form in order to present an image of timeless, universal grace. To Maillol, the female form was the perfect means of conveying any conceptual message. This resulted in an inversion of abstract art: be it France, Liberty or another concept, Maillol would harness it in the form of a woman. There is a stately classicism in Femme debout se coiffant, yet Maillol's hallmark removal of all extraneous detail means that the sculpture appears classical yet intensely avant garde.

In an addition to her certificate for this work, Dina Vierny wrote that this bronze 'est une oeuvre exceptionnelle pour deux raisons:

1) Elle a été oiselée et patinée par l'artiste à qui elle a appartenu comme le démontre la mention sur la socle de l'oeuvre 'épreuve de l'artiste'.

2) La patine a été préservé et l'oeuvre n'ayant jamais été exposée aux intempéries du dehors, est intacte'.

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