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Lot Essay
A later cast of one of the very few sculptures that were originally cast in bronze by Gonzlez himself, Le cagoulard meaning The cowled head is perhaps the single work of all Gonzlez's sculptures that most closely resembles the work of his friend Constantin Brancusi.
Using the reclining head format that he has used in many of his carved stone heads, Gonzlez here combines this theme with the cubistic forms of his constructed masks of the early 1930s to produce a striking abstracted form.
Taking its name from the french word for the long hood on a monk's habit, Le cagoulard, with its flat planar visage more closely resembles the medieval helmet of a knight. The reason for this resemblance seems to be that Gonzlez's original intention for the present work was for a variation on this helmet-like head to form part of a figure with a long cowled mane forming its support.
More mask-like in its appearance than in the present sculpture, Gonzlez evidently rejected this idea in favour of the more cubistic form of Le cagoulard. Lying on its side, the heavy bronze head elegantly pivots on a central axis point at the centre of its mass which when allied to the solid material presence of the work endows the sculpture with a large part of its character. In the positioning of this piece, Gonzlez undoubtedly drew inspiration from Brancusi's sleeping bronze heads but, unlike Brancusi, Gonzlez has not sought to lighten the material nature of the work by positioning the bronze, but rather to let the weight and solidity of the metal form speak for itself.
Using the reclining head format that he has used in many of his carved stone heads, Gonzlez here combines this theme with the cubistic forms of his constructed masks of the early 1930s to produce a striking abstracted form.
Taking its name from the french word for the long hood on a monk's habit, Le cagoulard, with its flat planar visage more closely resembles the medieval helmet of a knight. The reason for this resemblance seems to be that Gonzlez's original intention for the present work was for a variation on this helmet-like head to form part of a figure with a long cowled mane forming its support.
More mask-like in its appearance than in the present sculpture, Gonzlez evidently rejected this idea in favour of the more cubistic form of Le cagoulard. Lying on its side, the heavy bronze head elegantly pivots on a central axis point at the centre of its mass which when allied to the solid material presence of the work endows the sculpture with a large part of its character. In the positioning of this piece, Gonzlez undoubtedly drew inspiration from Brancusi's sleeping bronze heads but, unlike Brancusi, Gonzlez has not sought to lighten the material nature of the work by positioning the bronze, but rather to let the weight and solidity of the metal form speak for itself.