Raymond Duchamp-Villon

Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris
Collection particulière (acquis du précédent le 31 mai 1963)

Walter Pach, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Paris, 1924, illustration d'un autre exemplaire
Andrew Carnduff-Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, illustration d'un autre exemplaire p. 136
Sculptures de Duchamp-Villon (catalogue d'exposition), Galerie Louis Carré, Paris, 1963, no. 10, illustration d'un autre exemplaire en bronze p. 31
Raymond Duchamp-Villon : 1876-1918 (catalogue d'exposition), M. Knœdler & Company, New York, 1967, illustration d'un autre exemplaire en bronze fig. 61
Duchamp-Villon, Collections du Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'art moderne et du Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen (catalogue d'exposition), Paris, 1998, no. 43, illustration d'un autre exemplaire en bronze p. 97

Golden black patina. There are two minor specks of verdigris in the recesses of the bronze, as well as some light surface dirt. There is some slight patina rubbing to the prominent areas of the sculpture. Otherwise, this work is in very good condition.
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signed 'Duchamp Villon', stamped 'Georges Rudier Fondeur' and 'Louis Carré Editeurs', bronze. Executed in 1914 and cast at a later date.

 

Familier du Polo de Bagatelle, Duchamp-Villon rêvait de réaliser une statue équestre depuis 1912, au moins. Dans une première œuvre, il tente de faire fusionner l'animal et le cavalier. Dans la seconde, dite Le Cavalier droit, l'animal fortement dressé s'articule par un jeu de roues et de bielles qui  exprime le souci de transposition des rythmes mécanisés de la vie.
Duchamp-Villon, Collections du Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'art moderne et du Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen (catalogue d'exposition), Paris, 1998, p. 97.

Duchamp-Villon a précédé Laurens, Lipchitz et Zadkine. Le temps lui a manqué d'approfondir pour toucher enfin à la candide unité qui donne aujourd'hui tout son prestige à l'œuvre de Lipchitz ou de Laurens. Mais quelle prescience ! Quelle claire vision de ces nécessités qui vont rendre à l'art sa gratuité ! Duchamp-Villon conçut avec une étonnante rigueur l'obligation de rompre avec tout de ces fausses audaces qui ne servaient à rien que camoufler l'erreur académique.
André Salmon, in Sculptures de Duchamp-Villon, 1876-1918 (catalogue d'exposition), Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1931.

 

A regular at the Bagatelle Polo club, Duchamp-Villon dreamed of creating an equestrian statue from at least 1912.  In a first work, he attempted to fuse the animal with the rider.  In a second, known as Le Cavalier droit, the animal, standing upright, is articulated through a game of wheels and rods that express the artist's anxiety at the influence of mechanical rhythms on life.
Duchamp-Villon, Collections du Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'art moderne et du Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1998, p. 97.

Duchamp-Villon came before Laurens, Lipchitz and Zadkine.  He did not have the time to develop to reach the candid unity that today gives the work of Lipchitz or Laurens such prestige. But what a precedent he was! What a clear vision of the criteria that make art important! Duchamp-Villon understood with an astonishing rigour the obligation to dispense with all of the false audacity that served no purpose other than camouflaging academic error.
André Salmon, Sculptures de Duchamp-Villon, 1876-1918 (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1931.