Aristide Maillol

Dina Vierny, Paris

Acquired from the above

John Rewald, Maillol, 1939, illustration of the version in plaster and marble p. 61

Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, 1965, illustration of another cast pl. 206

Maillol au Palais des Rois de Majorque, Perpignan, 1979, no. 85, illustration of another cast

Aristide Maillol: 1861-1944 (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, illustration of another cast pl. 105

Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Departmental Museum of Fine Arts, Yamanashi; Hiroshima Museum of Fine Arts; Prefectorial Museum of Fine Arts of Kumamoto; Prefectorial Museum of Fine Arts, Kanazawa; Prefectorial Museum of Fine Arts, Ehime; Prefectorial Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo;  Museum of Isetan, Tokyo, 1984, no. S-59, illustration of another cast.

Bertrand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, London, 1995, illustration of another cast p. 117

Pomone aux bras tombants was conceived in 1937 during a period when Maillol was working on several private commissions for monumental sculptures.  This nearly life-size figure allowed him once again to explore a theme that had interested him during his early career.  The sculpture was based on an earlier version of Pomone, which the artist had created in 1910.  In that sculpture, the figure extends her arms in a rigid gesture of offering to the beholder.    But in the present work, the artist renders Pomone with a much more relaxed posture, allowing her arms to rest at her sides.  The resulting sculpture appears much more naturalistic than the earlier version, and possesses a lifelike softness that the original Pomone lacked. When Maillol exhibited this revised version at the Petit Palais in 1937, it was considered the crowning achievement of his career.

As Bertrand Lorquin tells us, "His work was displayed in several rooms, and the critics unanimously acknowledged his genius. Yet, even at the height of fame, Maillol still received no public commissions. With the exception of his monuments to the war dead, his commissions all came from private quarters, usually commitees organized by friends. Unperturbed by this state of affairs, the artist gratefully accepted honors and distinctions which he had never sought. Art was the only thing that mattered to him" (Bertrand Lorquin, op. cit., p. 114).