Julio Gonzlez (1876-1942)

Jeune fille fire

Details

Julio Gonzlez (1876-1942)
Jeune fille fire
inscribed with the maker's name and numbered '[copyright mark] By R. Gonzalez 6/6' (at the lower left side), inscribed with the foundry mark 'Susse Fondeur Paris' (at the back near the base)
bronze with brown patina
15 3/4in. (40cm.) high including base
13 3/4in. (35cm.) high excluding base
Conceived circa 1934-36, and cast in a numbered edition of six plus four casts marked 0, 00, EA, HC plus a further cast marked M.E.A.C. Madrid, at a later date

Literature

V. Aguilera Cerni, Julio, Joan, Roberta Gonzlez - Itinerario de una dinastia, Barcelona 1973, no. 172 (illustrated p. 229).

Lot Essay

Originally carved in sandstone, Jeune fille fire (Proud young girl) is one of the earliest of the stone carved heads that Gonzlez made in the mid 1930s. Both the title and the features of this clinically chiselled head suggest that it is a portrait of Gonzlez's daughter, Roberta.

One of the more naturalistically rendered of the artist's heads, the features of the face have been boldly chiselled out of the stone with a sense of carefully angled blows that leave a dramatic spatial patterning of striated marks on the contours of the woman's face. These along with the figure's very set posture and expression combine with the strength and solidity of the material to eloquently convey the figure of a determined and proud young woman.

More from Julio Gonzalez Collection

View All