Emile Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)

Liberté

Details

Emile Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)
Liberté
titled and dated on the back of the figure 'Liberté 1915', signed with cipher, stamped with foundry mark and numbered on the back of the base 'Susse Frs Paris No 4', inscribed on the side of the base '© by BOURDELLE'
bronze with green patina
Height: 14½in. (37cm.)
Original clay version executed in 1915; this bronze version cast at a later date

Literature

I. Jianou and M. Dufet, Bourdelle, Paris, 1978 (second edition), p. 123, no. 574
H.A. Read, "Emile Antoine Bourdelle," The Arts, vol. VIII, no. 4, Oct., 1925, p. 198 (monumental version illustrated, pp. 201, 208 and 220)

Lot Essay

The present sculpture was executed as a study for one of the four figures Bourdelle conceived for the base of his equestrian monument to the Argentinian hero General Alvéar. The other figures symbolized Victory, Force and Eloquence. This project occupied Bourdelle from 1913-1923; the public unveiling took place in the Plaza de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires in 1925. Amelia, a young woman from Montauban, the town of Bourdelle's birth, served as the model for the figures.