Lot11 N11625 4CL8J

Replete with voluminous forms and asserting a compelling presence, La Négresse, conceived in 1934, is an elegant paragon of Henri Laurens’ pivotal stylistic evolution in the wake of World War I that would come to define the sculptor’s mature output. Esteemed for his Cubist constructions of 1915-19, which fragmented conventional forms into strikingly geometricized planes, Laurens—like his peers Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris and Georges Braque—reacted to the upheaval of World War I by in part renouncing their avant-garde advancements and embracing more enduring cultural referents, such as antiquity, in a broader cultural shift known as Le rappel à l'ordre, or the return to order (see figs. 1 and 2). In classicized renderings of femininity, Laurens’ sharp-edged configurations expanded into rounded, voluptuous forms that privileged a formal unity. This tendency became increasingly accentuated throughout the 1920s and reached its apex by 1932-33, when the artist divided his time between Paris and the nearby hamlet of Etang-La-Ville. Perhaps reflective of inspiration found in the lyrical female nudes of his neighbor, Aristide Maillol, the present work exudes a self-assured, luxuriant sensuality (see fig 3). The flowing shapes and serpentine curves that so enthralled Laurens also holds strong affinity with the work of Henri Matisse, who adapted a greater stylization into his portrayals of the human body during this period: “Incidentally, the early thirties were a period of looking backward for Matisse just as they were for Laurens,” describes Werner Hofmann, “In 1931 Matisse began his great frieze La Danse, with which he abandoned his mundane hedonism of the 1920s and found a generous, arabesque rhythm for the moving body” (Werner Hofmann, The Sculpture of Henri Laurens, New York, 1970, pp. 42-43; see fig. 4).

Laurens nevertheless remained adherent to an abstract idiom, with his Cubist penchant for compositional deconstruction and recombination manifested in the contrasted angularity and curvaceousness within the present work. Energized zigzags of hair, triangular breasts and a sharpened nose flawlessly counterpoise the swell of the figure’s lower back and undulations of her arms, endowing her with a rhythmic vitality. Elizabeth Cowling elaborates, “The first clear sign of a new orientation in Laurens' work had occurred in 1919, in the more voluptuous and relaxed forms of Woman with a Fan and in subsequent related reclining nudes. In these, curves multiply, forms are more volumetric, and there is a general softening of mood—although the break-up of the body into large areas, which are then juxtaposed against one another at different angles, betrays the continuing role of Laurens' Cubist style” (Exh. Cat., London, Tate Gallery, On Classic Ground, Picasso, Léger, De Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-30, 1990, p. 130). La Négresse underscores Laurens’ firm commitment—spanning markedly different aesthetic modes—to conveying the formal essence of his subjects.

Integral to Laurens’ ceaseless stylistic evolution was his mastery of widely varied media: abandoning the metal, paper and wood of his Cubist assemblages in favor of terracotta and limestone by 1919, the artist devoted himself to bronze by the end of the following decade. Photographer Brassaï recalled upon a visit to Laurens’ studio in 1933, “Bronze, a more supple and malleable medium than stone, had permitted him to be more daring, to move away from a static geometric Cubism consisting entirely of angles and toward a more dynamic and plastic lyricism created by rounded shapes and undulating lines” (quoted in Exh. Cat., The Hague, Museum Beelden aan Zee, De Grote Curve, Henri Laurens, 1885-1954, 2014, p. 51).

The lush environs of Etang-La-Ville encouraged Laurens to adopt not only a stronger affiliation with the natural world and its organic forms, but also a deeply instinctive sculptural process that endured for the remainder of his career. Laurens later recalled, “When I begin a sculpture, I only have a vague idea of what I want to do. For instance, I have the idea of a woman or of something related to the sea. Before being a representation of whatever it may be, my sculpture is a plastic act and, more precisely, a series of plastic events, products of my imagination, answers to the demands of the making. I provide a title right at the end” (quoted in "Une declaration de Henri Laurens," Amis de l'Art, vol. 1, 26 June 1951, n.p.). Daily walks in the Forêt de Marly surrounding the town informed his ideations, here revealed in the figure’s hewn texture, warm patina and undulating, trunklike arms that culminate in branching fingers.

With volume and weight attentively balanced, the assertive yet elegant pose of La Négresse manifests Laurens’ lifelong investigation of interactions between sculpture and environment. “Essentially sculpture means taking possession of a space,” the artist proclaimed, “the construction of an object by means of hollows and volumes, fullness and voids: their alterations, their contrasts, their constant and reciprocal tension, and in final form, their equilibrium" (quoted in Andrew Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, New York, 1953, p. 43). The fleshy amplitude of forms asserts a strong corporeality, resulting in an extraordinarily tangible and dynamic sense of the three-dimensional in the present work. As the artist affirmed, "I strive for the ripeness of form. I should like to succeed in making it so full, so juicy, that nothing more could be added" (quoted in Exh. Cat., London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Henri Laurens, 1971, p . 19). Other casts of the present work belong to prestigious museum collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

Artist

Henri Laurens