RIK WOUTERS | Contemplation ou Buste de femme : En contemplation

Nel Wouters, Overijse
Private collection, Watermael-Boitsfort (acquired from the above in September 1954, through the Galerie Brueghel, Brussels)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Brussels, Galerie Brueghel, 1954
Ostende, PMMK, Rik Wouters, 1994, no. 28-I, illustrated in the catalogue p. 47
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Rik Wouters, 2002, no. 64 , illustrated in the catalogue

Les Indépendants, VIIIème salon (exhibition catalogue), Brussels,1911, no. 226, another cast 
La Libre Esthétique (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1911, no. 259, another cast  
Exposition Internationale des Beaux-Arts (exhibition catalogue), Rome, 1911, no. 227, the plaster
(Probably) VI Esposicion internacional de arte (exhibition catalogue), Barcelona, 1911
Exposition inaugurale (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Galerie Giroux, 1912, no. 71, another cast
L’Art Contemporain, Salon (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, 1912, no. 1, another cast
Exposition universelle et internationale (exhibition catalogue), Ghent, 1913, no. 754, another cast
La Libre Esthétique (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1913, no. 287, another cast
Salon (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Grand Palais, 1913, no. 2083, the plaster 
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Galerie Giroux,  1914, another cast 
L’Art Contemporain, Salon (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, 1914, the plaster
XI Esposizione Internationale d'Arte (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, 1914, no. 195, plaster
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1916, no. 66, another cast
Ary Delen, Rik Wouters, Antwerp, 1922, another cast illustrated pl. 5
(Exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Libre Académie de Belgique, 1925, no. 139, another cast
Aldre och Nyare Belgisk Konst (exhibition catalogue), Stockholm, 1927, no. 140, another cast
L'Art Contemporain, Salon (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, 1928, no. 259, another cast
Exposition Centennale de l’art Belge (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1930, no. 125, another cast
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, 1935, no. 23, the plaster illustrated
Luc et Paul Haesaerts, Flandre, Paris, 1935, another cast illustrated
Exposition d'artistes belges contemporains (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musée du Jeu de Paume, 1935, no. 206, another cast
Exposition internationale d'art moderne (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1935, no. 292, another cast
Les Compagnons de l'art (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1938, no. 170, detail of another cast illustrated
Nel Wouters, La vie de Rik Wouters à travers son œuvre, Brussels, 1944, another cast illustrated pl. XIX
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Malines, 1946, no. 19, another cast
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Rotterdam, Musée Boymans ; The Hague, Gemeente Museum, 1946, no. 19,  another cast illustrated
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Ghent, Verviers, Maastricht, 1946, another cast illustrated
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Boitsfort, 1947, no. 10, another cast illustrated
Ary Delen, Rik Wouters, Sculptures et dessins, Brussels, 1947, another cast illustrated pl. 9
Cercle artistique (exhibition catalogue), Charleroi, 1947, no. 57, another cast illustrated
Le nu dans l'art belge contemporain (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, 1947, no. 51, another cast
Jan-Albert Goris, Modern Sculpture in Belgium, New York, 1948, another cast illustrated on the cover of the catalogue
Exposition Internationale de sculpture en plein air (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, Middelheim, 1951, no. 94, another cast  
50 Jahre Belgische Kunst (exhibition catalogue), Nuremberg, 1955, no. 108, another cast 
Biennale (exhibition catalogue), Venice,  1956, no. 62, another cast
Sele Arte, 1956, no. 24, another cast 
L'art belge (exhibition catalogue), Moscow, Musée Pouchkine, 1956-57, another cast illustrated
L'art belge (exhibition catalogue), Varsovie, 1957, no. 174, another cast
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Antwerp, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, 1957, no. 13, another cast illustrated 
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, 1957, another cast illustrated 
Exposition Universelle (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, 1958, no. 236, another cast
100 Jahre Belgische Kunst (exhibition catalogue), Munich, 1959, no. 93, another cast
100 Jahre Belgische Kunst (exhibition catalogue), Bremen, 1960, no. 93, another cast
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Amersfoort, 1961, another cast
Europaïsche Kunst 1912 (exhibition catalogue), Cologne, 1962, no. 196, another cast illustrated
Roger Avermaete, Rik Wouters,  Brussels, 1962, another cast p. 215, another cast illustrated pp 89-90
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Malines, 1966, no. 21, another cast 
Maîtres Contemporains (exhibition catalogue), Bruxelles, Galerie Régence, 1967, no. 27, another cast
L'art flamand d'Ensor à Permeke (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1970, no. 254, another cast
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Amersfoort, 1988-1989, no. 63, another cast illustrated 
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Palais du Gouverneur, 1992, no. 117, another cast
Olivier Bertrand & Stefaan Hautekeete, Rik Wouters, Jalons d’une vie, Brussels, 1994, illustrated p. 36 
Rik Wouters, La Figure humaine (exhibition catalogue), Malines, Centre Culturel A. Spinoy, 1999, no. 45, another cast illustrated p. 63
Olivier Bertrand, Regard sur un destin, Brussels, 2000, this example illustrated p. 42 and 219
Rik Wouters (exhibition catalogue), Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 2017, no. 192, another cast illustrated p. 240

Attractive brown patina. There is some minor wear to the protruding elements and some superficial dust in the crevices. There is a small spot of verdegris on the back of the right shoulder. This work is in overall very good 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."

Wouters was trained as a sculptor and thus perfectly mastered this technique, as well as that of drawing, essential to the disciple. He began working as a teenager in his father’s studio, working on wooden sculptures. He then enrolled at the Académie de Malines in Brussels. If, for many, Rik Wouters sculpture is represented by his masterpiece La vierge folle (1909-1911, cast in January 1912), a monumental work for the time and unprecedented in European sculpture, his sculptural work is more important than it first seems. It is important especially in number as over fifty works are known from a period of fifteen years (1900-1915). Among these are many heads of children which recall those by Medardo Rosso, rare, commissioned portraits, busts and heads of friends or artists. But Wouters sculptural work is above all modern for its era and like his large figure La vierge folle, his sculptures Attitude (1908), Au soleil (1911) and Contemplation (1911) stand apart in the history of modern sculpture. If Attitude owes much to Rodin in its "impressionism", it differs by the dynamism of its subject, caught in a whirl of drapery. This need to endow his subject with sometimes scarcely visible movement, is a constant characteristic of his work that reaches a climax in La vierge folle.

Much can be said about the masterpiece Contemplation, depicting a model leaning on a window ledge, a piece of mastery that is both massive and delicate. A work that is classical and modern, full and sensual, of a woman caught in a moment of thought, as light as a caress. Here Wouters’s style is freed from all influence in a language that is both personal and modern. The impression of immobility created by the model and reminiscent of antique statuary is suddenly broken by the curve and fall of her shoulders and the long, flowing lines of her back.

A plaster version of this work was exhibited the same year it was made at the International Exhibition in Rome as the artist was not able to finance a bronze version, and also at the Salon des Indépendants. The following year Wouters signed a contract with the French dealer Georges Giroux who opened a gallery in Brussels and thus had the means to open an account with Mommen, the best trader in art materials in Brussels. Giroux financed a few bronze copies which were shown at the inauguration of his gallery in March 1912 and then sent to all the exhibitions and galleries in Europe.

Editions

Wouters most beautiful and important sculptures are few and the bronze sculptures, if compared with bronzes by other world famous artists, are very rarely put up for purchase. There are never more than 12 editions and often less than this. La vierge folle exists in 9 editions including 5 in public collections (one at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyons, purchased from Nel Wouters).

His largest sculpture, Les soucis domestiques, exists in 12 editions with only one in a private collection. 10 editions of the sculpture Attitude have been found to this day, and the last editions present a flaw in the drapery due to the state of the plaster (after 1952/1953). There are less than 10 editions of Au Soleil, all bearing the mark of the founder. Most of these bronzes are Verbeyst casts with whom Nel Wouters worked exclusively after 1932. A few rare casts are from the Nouvelle Compagnie des Bronzes, the old Petermann firm for casts made before 1932. Only a few, rare casts, one or two at the most, were made during the artist’s lifetime.

Olivier Bertrand.



This cast will be included and illustrated in the Catalogue raisonné des sculptures de Rik Wouters being currently prepared by Olivier Bertrand.