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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE SIDNEY E. FRANK

1861-1944
VÉNUS (SANS COLLIER)

height: 175.3cm., 69in.

Executed in 1928 and cast at a later date in an edition of 12.

inscribed with the monogram and with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier. Fondeur. Paris

bronze

PROVENANCE

Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris
Norton Simon Foundation, Fullerton, California (acquired from the above in October 1967; sale: Sotheby's, New York, 20th May 1982, lot 210)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 5th November 2002, lot 47
Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

EXHIBITED

Fullerton, California, Fullerton Library (on loan 1967-68)
Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Sculpture from the Collections of Norton Simon Inc., and the Hunt Industries Museum of Modern Art, 1968-69
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Three Centuries of French Art, 1973-74, no. 56
Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum (on loan 1975-82)

LITERATURE

John Rewald, Maillol, Paris, 1939, illustration of another cast pl. 63
John Rewald, Maillol: Collection des maîtres, Paris, 1950, illustration of another cast pl. 42
Hermann Uhde-Bernays, Aristide Maillol, Dresden, 1957, illustration of another cast pl. 3
Waldemar George, Maillol, Paris, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 22
Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol et l'âme de la sculpture, Neuchâtel, 1977, illustration of another cast p. 22
Bertrand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, London, 1995, illustration in colour of another cast p. 109

NOTE

Maillol's sculpture of Vénus first achieved widespread recognition when he exhibited the plaster at the Salon d'Automne in 1928. In his quest for perfection, Maillol laboured for fifteen years in order to achieve just the right curvature of the legs. Like his contemporary Henri Matisse, the artist believed that the natural contours and essential beauty of the feminine form were best communicated through the use of simple, elegant line. According to John Rewald, 'To celebrate the human body, particularly the feminine body, seems to have been Maillol's only aim. He did this in a style from which all grandiloquence is absent, a style almost earthbound and grave, where static poses and contained gestures convey an impression of gravity and stability' (J. Rewald, Aristide Maillol (exhibition catalogue), New York, 1958-60, pp. 6-7). As Bertrand Lorquin noted of Vénus, the torso 'is a work of art in itself. It is perhaps one of the most accomplished pieces of sculpture in his entire ~uvre' (B. Lorquin, op. cit., p. 107).

Maillol received inspiration from the art of many cultures, including the sculpture of ancient Egypt, the Hindu carvings of India, and the white marbles of classical Greece. According to the artist himself, 'In Greek art, there is nothing more beautiful than the Vénus de Milo' (quoted in Aristide Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1945, p. 22). For Maillol, the Vénus de Milo reflected an inherent serenity independent of emotional implications or overt narrative. Although he rejected naturalism in art, he admired the refined contours that revealed the sensuality and quiet grace of pure form. Having finally found this success with his own Vénus, Maillol subsequently created two versions of the figure, one with a necklace and the other without, of which the present work is an example.