Chana Orloff

Acquired by the present owner from the artist's grand-daughter

Paris, Galerie Granoff, one person exhibition, no. 33 (in the catalogue), 1962 -1963
Tel Aviv, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art,  Retrospective Exhibition, 120 Sculptures, 60 Designs, 1969
Paris, Galerie Vallois, one person exhibition, 1987

Felix Marcilhac, Chana Orloff: Catalogue de l'Oeuvre sculpte, Paris, 1991, p. 103 (illustration of another example)

This sculpture is in very good condition, with very minor typical wear from age. It has a very good mottled, transparent patina.
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At the age of eighteen, Chana Orloff, along with her parents and eight brothers and sisters,  fled the small village of Staro-Konstaninov in the Ukraine and settled in Palestine. She moved to Paris in 1910  hoping to improve her skills as a seamstress in order to earn money to support her large family. Upon her arrival, she became fascinated with the poets, writers and artists who defined the creative milieu of Montparnasse, the center of expatriate Jewish artistic life. She chose to study at the Ecoles des Arts Decoratifs where she was exposed to the art of Maillol and Bourdelle. Orloff soon became a successful member of the vibrant artistic and literary avant-garde there, which included Picasso, Cocteau, Chagall, and especially Modigliani.

Gideon Ofrat describes Orloff's bronze sculptures as blending "a tendency toward geometric-cubist formalism with an expressive mood and gentle lyricism." (One Hundred Years of Art in Israel, 1998, p. 81).  Ones sees this interaction in Ruth and Noemi in the simple undulating lines and soft curves that form the sculpture. Orloff focuses on a geometrical abstraction, yet she remains faithful to the human figure.