- 121
Henri Laurens
Description
- Henri Laurens
- Femme au bras levé
- inscribed with the artist's monogram
- stone
- height: 56.5cm., 22 1/4 in.
- width: 42.5cm., 16 3/4 in.
Provenance
Dr Hadorn, Bern (acquired in 1946)
Acquired by the present owner in the mid-1980s
Exhibited
Baden-Baden, Museum Frieder Burda, Léger – Laurens, 2012, no. 51, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
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."
Catalogue Note
Femme agenouillee à la draperie combines a variety of elements of primary concern for Laurens. In the present work, the female nude takes on a powerful stance, poised between balance and tension. Kneeling firmly on the floor with one leg the other hovering in mid-air creates the impression of a figure in movement, in the process of getting ready to stand. The right arm lifted above her head carries this movement upwards through her body. The cylindrical shape of the figure supports this further and at the same time firmly grounds her to the base. With her body twisted sideways, the sculpture acquires a two dimensional quality.
For Laurens the negative space of a sculpture is equally important as that taken up by material. Endlessly pulsating between tension and stillness his figures echo those of his renowned predecessors - Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol. In contrast, Laurens' figures are poised without a deliberate context, inhabiting their own aura of eternity.
Towards the end of his life Laurens said: ‘When I begin a sculpture I have only a vague idea of what I want it to be. For example, I have an idea of a woman or something that has to do with the sea. Before my sculpture becomes a representation [reproduction] of anything, it is a sculptural fact. More precisely, it is a result of sculptural events, of the products of my imagination, of answers to the demands of the construction. On the whole it is all the work amounts to. The title comes last.’ (quoted in Werner Hofmann, The Sculpture of Henri Laurens, New York, 1970, p. 31).