- 27
Aristide Maillol
Description
- Aristide Maillol
- L'Harmonie, premier état
- Signed with the monogram M and inscribed with the foundry mark E. Godard, Paris
- Bronze
- Height: 59 1/8 in.
- 155 cm
Provenance
Private Collection, Japan (acquired from the above in 1995)
Exhibited
Literature
John Rewald, "Maillol remembered," in Artistide Maillol 1861-1944 (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, plaster version illustrated pp. 24 & 26
Bertand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, Geneva, 1994, illustration of another cast in color p. 149 & p. 151
L.K. Kramer, Aristide Maillol (1861-1944): Pioneer of Modern Sculpture, Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2000, pp. 267-268 (titled The Rose; another cast illustrated, pl. 243; another cast illustrated again, pl. 244)
Catalogue Note
The model for Harmonie was Dina Vierny, a French Resistance leader of Russian origin who served as the artist's muse during the last decade of his life. Vierny would become the inheritor of his estate and the world-renowned expert on his art. But when she posed for this sculpture, as depicted in the photograph that Rewald took of her standing next to the plaster, she was the physical embodiment of Maillol's vision. "It was an astounding spectacle: two naked girls side by side, related and yet dissimilar," Rewald recalled. "A spectacle that made is possible to perceive clearly the transposition the artist had achieved. It became evident to what degree the model was but a guide for the sculptor and with what obstinancy he was pursuing a preconceived idea one could almost say in spite of the harmonious forms this beautiful create offered him. Indeed, Maillol was gathering from the living source what information he needed" (J. Rewald, "Maillol Remembered," Aristide Maillol 1861-1944, op. cit., p. 27).
According to Vierny, the present bronze was cast in a numbered edition of six, plus two artist's proofs. The present work is number 3 from the enumerated edition.