- 12
Demeter Chiparus
Description
- Demeter Chiparus
- Les Girls
base engraved D. H. Chiparus
- cold-painted and parcel-gilt bronze; carved ivory; on a Portor marble and onyx base
- 20 1/4 x 25 1/2 x 5 1/8 in. (51.4 x 64.8 x 13 cm)
- edited by Etling, Paris
Provenance
Frederic M. Babbish Collection
Exhibited
A Private Collection of Art Deco Chryselephantine Sculpture, Sotheby’s, New York, July 17-August 25, 1995
Art Deco 1910-1935, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, March 27-July 20, 2003
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, September 10, 2003-January 4, 2004
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA, March 13-July 5, 2004
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, August 22, 2004-January 9, 2005
Literature
Victor Arwas, Art Deco, London, 1992, p. 155 (for the single-figure model)
Victor Arwas, Art Deco Sculpture, London, 1992, p. 63 (for the single-figure model)
Alberto Shayo, Chiparus: Master of Art Deco, New York, 1993, p. 61 (for the five-figure model in Etling's period catalog sheet) and pp. 163-165, pls. 94-96 (for the three variants of the model)
Catalogue Note
The plethora of chorus line acts that populated Paris music halls and nightclubs of the 1920s achieved their effects through precision dance routines, though they trafficked in the same exotic themes as the Ballets Russes spectacles that inspired Chiparus the decade before. Chiparus' Les Girls most likely represents an amalgamation of these acts. Like Bakst’s ballerinas, Chiparus' dancers are clothed in their own nudity. Their costumes disclose Paris’ new-found fascination with the body and its expressive moving form. Chiparus’ pared-down costumes heighten the effect of the dancers’ unison number, but retain the rich ornamentation and jeweled headpieces codified by Bakst and other Ballets Russes designers. The cobwebs that form the backdrop for the Tiller Girls' performance are echoed in the gilded costume design of Chiparus’ central figure.
Chiparus' Les Girls was edited in three different variations, including a single figure, a three-figure group, and a rare and ambitious five-figure group. The present model is the only sculpture by Chiparus to feature five figures on a single base. The model was alternatively executed with brilliant green or dark brown catsuits, with varying parcel-gilt decoration differentiating each figure.