Lot 55 : Rik Wouters (Belgian, 1882-1916)

Rik Wouters - 1882-1916

Auction Location: Netherlands - 2006
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Artist or Maker:

Rik Wouters (Belgian, 1882-1916)

Title:

Beschouwing - Contemplation

Description:

Beschouwing - Contemplation
signed 'Rik.Wouters' (on the right side of the back), and with foundry mark (on the left side of the back)
bronze with a dark grey patina
44 x 49 x 53 cm.
Conceived in 1911 and cast in an edition of circa six by Jean Verbeyst, Bruxelles.

Provenance:

(Possibly) Georges Giroux, Brussels.
M.R. Aerens.
Galerie Pantheon, Ghent, where acquired by the present owners.

Exhibited:

Rome, International Exhibition of Fine Arts, 1911 (the plaster cast)
Brussels, Salon de la Libre Académie de Belgique, 1911 (another cast).
Brussels, Salon des Indépendants, 1911 (another cast).
Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 1912 (possibly, or another cast).
Antwerp, Salon de l'art contemporain, 1914 (another cast).
Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 1914 (possibly, or another cast).
Venice, 1915 (another cast).
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1916-1917 (another cast).
Brussels, La Libre Académie, 1925 (another cast).
Brussels, Salon de Printemps, 1928 (another cast).
Brussels, Centennale de l'art Belge, 1930 (another cast)
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-arts, Rik Wouters, 1935, (another cast ill.).
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans; The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Rik Wouters, 1946 (another cast ill.).
Mechels, Salle des Fêtes, 1946 (another cast).
Ghent, Vervier, Maastricht, Rik Wouters tentoonstellingen, 1947 (another cast ill.).
Charleroi, XXIe Salon du Cercle Artistique, 1947 (another cast ill.)
Middelheim, Biennale, 1951 (another cast).
Venice, Biennale, 1956 (another cast).
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Rik Wouters 7 July - 15 September 1957 (another cast ill.).
Paris, Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, 1957 (another cast ill.)
Brussels, Exposition universelle et internationale, 1958 (another cast).
Amersfoort, Amersfoortse Gemeenschap, Tentoonstelling Rik Wouters, 1961 (another cast).
Brussels, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Rik Wouters, Bronnen en werken/Des origines a l'oeuvre, 23 February - 26 May 2002, cat.no. 64 (ill.) and cat.no. 65 (the plaster cast ill.)

Published:

A.J.J. Delen, Rik Wouters, zijn leven, zijn werk, zijn einde, Antwerp 1922, (another cast ill.).
L. & P. Haesaerts, Flandre (another cast ill.).
J.F. Elslander, Figures et Souvenirs d'une belle époque (another cast ill.).
Sele Arte, no. 24, May - June 1956 (another cast ill.).
Roger Avermaete, Rik Wouters, Brussels 1986, p. 89 (another cast ill.) and p. 215.
O. Bertrand, Rik Wouters, Visies op een levensloop, Brussel 2000, p. 219 (the plaster cast ill.), no. 42 (another cast ill.)
O. Bertrand, Les peintures/de schilderijen, catalogue raisonné, Antwerp 1995 (another cast ill.).

Notes:

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE BELGIAN COLLECTOR

The sculpture of Rik Wouters was something completely different from what Belgium was used to at the beginning of the 20th century. It broke through all fetters imposed by a boring and suffocating academic tradition and spontaneously pushed itself forward by its untouched freshness and temperament. In comparison with the interiorised and contemplative workings of his contemporary colleague George Minne, Wouters' art stood for joie de vivre and affection.
Wouters saw it as his artistic task to redefine the meaning of the human body in space. For him, the body was the centre of life, and it should not suggest anything else. Concentrating on forms and volumes only to capture a brief moment of happiness or tenderness in life, was not enough for Wouters. Light should play an important role as well, thus giving a chance to the painter in him. On the one hand light plays and reflects on the surface of a sculpture, heritage to Cézanne, the Fauves and Rodin, but on the other hand it shows us the intensive labour of the hands of the sculptor on the work in question. In other words, the occupations of the sculptor being confirmed by the painter. From 1909 on Wouters was fascinated by facial expressions, and his wife Nel became his favourite model and source of inspiration. He searched for a familiar, daily pose, from which anyone could instantly read someone's situation or condition, like rest, sorrow, or happiness. From this fascination a series of impressive female busts came into being between 1909 and 1911, in which the scale and the dimension of the forms associate with the seemingly most simple and unforeseen poses. Next to statues like Huiselijke zorgen and In the sun, the present lot Contemplation is one of the most celebrated examples of Wouters' study to these facial expressions.
Often, the head only was not sufficient for the Belgian sculptor. He gladly used other parts of the body to come to an ultimate expression and a much more spatial representation of the model. In Contemplation for instance, the shoulders and especially the powerfully sculpted back of the model play this role, giving it an unexpected monumentality.
Unlike Bourdelle, Rik Wouters' works are not a coherent construction of balanced architectonical volumes, but they are organisms alive with internal tension and the full richness of the forms. The sculpture is not an expression of itself, but should be understood directly as a relation between material and vital force. On the other hand, the busts, like Contemplation, are always easily accessible, due to their universal character, life incorporated in the human body.
In spite of his very short life and as a consequent, a relatively small oeuvre, Rik Wouters is considered to be the most important Belgian sculptor of the first part of the 20th century. Not long after his unfortunate early death in 1916, a journalist wrote: "He was a superior human being, a superior character and a superior artist. It was visible from his workings, and even those meeting him for the first time were impressed by him. As a person and as an artist he radiated a stream of warm-blooded passion". (A.J.J. Delen in: Exh.cat. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Rik Wouters, 7 July - 15 September 1957, p. 29)

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