François Pompon

Galerie Motte, Geneva, 2-3 November 1971, lot 141
on loan to the Arp Museum, Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, September 2009 to December 2012

Overall the condition of the marble is very good with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There are abrasions and some minor discolouration to the end of the nose and to the ears. There are a number of small lacunae created during the reduction process by an implement such as a compass. There is some dirt to these lacunae and they would benefit from a professional cleaning. There is minor veining to the marble consistent with material, including to the proper left side and to the inside of the proper right front leg. There are a few small naturally occurring inclusions, including to the face. There are a few very small chips to the paws, in particular to the proper left back paw. There is a small patch of veining or discolouration to the outside of the proper right front paw.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

François Pompon’s Ours Blanc is a shining example of the early 20^th-century movement in the arts that sought to escape both the rules of the Academy and the expressive modelling style of Rodin. Together with such masterpieces as Aristide Maillol’s La Méditerannée and, later, Brancusi’s L'Oiseau dans l'espace, the Ours Blanc brought about a formal language in sculpture which focused on the reduction of form and volume to its essentials. The aim was to break from a narrative and descriptive tradition of representation. Sculpture was gradually freed from the notion of subject, which was substituted for the quest for pure shape that characterised the work of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. 

In contrast to his contemporaries, however, Pompon would never abandon his beloved animal subjects. Instead he employed the new language of sculpture in order to create ever more arresting portraits of the animals he observed. His concentration on geometrical volumes enabled him to summarise typical animal attitudes effectively whilst the smooth homogenous surfaces of the marbles, stones and lacquers illustrated the subjects’ grace and nobility. The Ours blanc portrays a polar bear as it pauses during a forward stride, and raises its nose to smell and see something that has caught its interest. Thick, rounded legs and the strong neck supporting the raised head lend to the sculpture the polar bear’s characteristic noble force. The smooth polish of the surface of the marble, the small incisions that form the eyes and mouth and further understated details, such as the little ears, in the meantime, combine to suggest the density of the coat of white fur.

It is not surprising that the Ours Blanc became François Pompon’s most important and revered sculpture.  It came to define the long career of an animalier sculptor who, at the age of 67, first presented the monumental model to great acclaim at the 1922 Salon d’Automne in Paris. Thereafter, the Ours Blanc was executed in different materials and on various scales over a period of eleven years. The catalogue of the 1994 retrospective suggests that 13 marble versions on the scale of the present marble were made between 1923 and 1933, of which several seem to be lost (op.cit., p. 212). Liliane Colas has suggested that the present bear is the fourth, fifth or seventh version, made around 1927-1928, since the signature is of an earlier type (with M's without an extension to the arm furthest right) and because Pompon slightly elongated the neck of the Ours Blanc after 1928.

A bronze cast of the Ours Blanc’s head adorned the door of the sculptor’s atelier in Paris from 1930 and, in 1937, the city of Dijon erected a monumental sculpture of the white bear in honour of Pompon, who had once worked and studied there.  A monumental version, measuring nearly 2 meters, is one of the highlights of the Musée d’Orsay’s collection of 20th century art (inv. no. RF3269). Many further versions in bronze and plaster belong to museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 30.123) and the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp.

RELATED LITERATURE
R. Escholier, 'Au Salon d' Automne. La peinture et la sculpture', Art et décoration, December 1922, p. 21; M. Dufrène, Ensembles mobiliers. Exposition Internationale 1925, 1re Série, Paris, 1925, fig. 26; E. de Courières, François Pompon. Vingt-sept reproductions de sculptures, Paris, 1926, p. 49; François Pompon, sculpteur animalier bourguignon, exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, 1964, p. 14, fig. 1; C. Chevillot, L. Colas and A. Pingeot, François Pompon. 1855-1933, exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, etc., Paris, 1994, pp. 35-37, 43, 84, 86-87, 92, 94, 158, 211-212, no. 122, figs. 1, 3, 44, 52; François Pompon 1855-1933. Rétrospective, exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Clermont-Ferran and Galerie Brame & Lorenceau, Paris, 1999, pp. 1-7, figs. 84-87; E. Horswell, Rembrandt Bugatti, une vie pour la sculpture, Paris, 2004, p. 126

We would like to thank Liliane Colas for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.