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Lot Essay
The rounded and lyrical forms on display in Henri Laurens’ Flora are a testament to the artist’s monumental and yet sensuous sculptural style of his mature years. Conceived in 1939, this work reflects the significant changes in his artistic practice of the 1930s, cementing his earlier interest in organic forms in the mid-1920s, while distancing himself from the sharp and angular aesthetic of his cubist years. This evolution brought his approach to the female form in new and uniquely lyrical directions.
Flora is a delicate and striking bronze, evoking a sense of vitality through its sinuous, curvy forms. Firmly holding onto the ground below her, the sitter’s gaze gently flows upwards as she slowly reclines back: here, solidity and grace are skillfully balanced in a delicate and exquisite interplay. The voids between the figure’s legs and arms intersperse in space, creating a unique sense of curvilinear energy.
It was during the 1930s that the artist started to explore the medium of bronze (after dedicating himself mostly to stone and terracotta in the previous decade) with the aim of creating a more rhythmic dynamism between the full monumentality of the medium and the empty spaces that punctuate it. While summarizing his visit to Laurens’ atelier, Brassaï recounts how the artist explained to him "how bronze, a more supple and malleable medium than stone, had permitted him to be more daring, to move away from a static geometric Cubism consisting entirely of angles and toward a more dynamic and plastic lyricism created by rounded shapes and undulating lines” (quoted in The Great Curve, Henri Laurens, Retrospective, exh. cat., Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, 2014, p. 51).
The artist once stated he only titled works once he considered them finished. The name Flora may remind one of the Roman goddess Flora, deity of flowers and fertility; his interest in antiquity stemmed from contemporary publications, exploring the idea that ancient and modern art "shared a similar spirit of invention" (ibid., p. 51). Moreover, many of the bronzes of his mature years bear titles that are somehow related to nature, in relation to his more organic approach to form. In the present work, the harmonious and fluid handling of the female nude can undeniably remind one of the blossoming of nature in spring.
Flora is a delicate and striking bronze, evoking a sense of vitality through its sinuous, curvy forms. Firmly holding onto the ground below her, the sitter’s gaze gently flows upwards as she slowly reclines back: here, solidity and grace are skillfully balanced in a delicate and exquisite interplay. The voids between the figure’s legs and arms intersperse in space, creating a unique sense of curvilinear energy.
It was during the 1930s that the artist started to explore the medium of bronze (after dedicating himself mostly to stone and terracotta in the previous decade) with the aim of creating a more rhythmic dynamism between the full monumentality of the medium and the empty spaces that punctuate it. While summarizing his visit to Laurens’ atelier, Brassaï recounts how the artist explained to him "how bronze, a more supple and malleable medium than stone, had permitted him to be more daring, to move away from a static geometric Cubism consisting entirely of angles and toward a more dynamic and plastic lyricism created by rounded shapes and undulating lines” (quoted in The Great Curve, Henri Laurens, Retrospective, exh. cat., Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, 2014, p. 51).
The artist once stated he only titled works once he considered them finished. The name Flora may remind one of the Roman goddess Flora, deity of flowers and fertility; his interest in antiquity stemmed from contemporary publications, exploring the idea that ancient and modern art "shared a similar spirit of invention" (ibid., p. 51). Moreover, many of the bronzes of his mature years bear titles that are somehow related to nature, in relation to his more organic approach to form. In the present work, the harmonious and fluid handling of the female nude can undeniably remind one of the blossoming of nature in spring.