Aristide Maillol

Acquired by the present owner in the 1980s

John Rewald, Aristide Maillol, London, Paris & New York, 1939, illustration of the terracotta pl. 120
Maillol, Exposition-Hommage du Centenaire de sa naissance (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Daber, 1961, illustration of the terracotta pl. 15
Aristide Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Perls Galleries, New York, 1970, no. 58, illustration of another version p. 40
Maillol au Palais des Rois de Majorque (exhibition catalogue), Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan, 1979, illustration of another version p. 110
Aristide Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Palais des Congrès, Perpignan, 2000, illustration of another version pl. 85

Rich green-brown patina. This work is in good original condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In 1937, Aristide Maillol met Dina Vierny, a beautiful young woman of Russian origin who became the artist's muse and brought about a revival in his art towards the end of the 1930s. Vierny bore a striking resemblence to his earlier models of the 1900s, and encapsulated Maillol's ideal of feminine beauty. She became his principal model, and this work is one of the first sculptures for which she posed. Speaking of her first experiences with the artist, Vierny recounted Maillol's process which led up to this work; "I began posing for large monumental drawings and for the carving of Nymphs...Next came The Mountain, for which he returned to projects he had had at the beginning of his life, but with a certain change in the conceptions that determined his work...Maillol started out with the pose of a seated woman which he had imagined as early as 1900. It was a figure to which he often returned in his career, tirelessly seeking to reconstruct the articulation of its volumes. He sculpted several statuettes before moving on to the monumental figure" (quoted in Bertrand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, New York, 1995, pp. 137-138).