Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)

Torse de l'Action enchaine

Details

Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)
Maillol, A.
Torse de l'Action enchaine
signed with monogram and numbered '3/6'(on the top of the base); stamped with foundry mark 'C. Valsuani cire perdue' (on the back of the base)
bronze with green patina
Height: 48 in. (122 cm.) Length: 23 in. (59.7 cm.)
Original version conceived in 1905; this bronze version cast at a later date.

Provenance

Dina Vierny, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1982.

Literature

J. Rewald, Maillol, London, 1939, pp. 78-80 (another cast illustrated).
A. Carnduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, New York, 1952, pp. 76-77 (another cast illustrated).
C. Giedion-Welcker, Contemporary Sculpture: An Evolution in Volume and Space, New York, 1955, p. 24 (another cast illustrated).
W. George, Aristide Maillol et l'me de la sculpture, New York, 1965, p. 142 (another cast illustrated).
J. Speyer, "Twentieth-Century European Painting and Sculpture," Apollo, vol. LXXXIV, September 1966, p. 225 (another cast illustrated, p. 223).
A.E. Elsen, The Partial Figure in Modern Sculpture from Rodin to
1969, exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art, 1969, p. 112 (another cast illustrated, p. 32).
W. George, Aristide Maillol, Paris, 1971, pp. 10, 13-17 (another cast illustrated, p. 60).
Aristide Maillol: 1861-1944, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, p. 67, no. 54 (another cast illustrated).
S. Hunter and J. Jacobus, Modern Art, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, New York, 1977, p. 69 (another cast illustrated).
M. Bouille, Maillol, la femme toujours recommence, Paris, 1989, pp. 38-41 (another cast illustrated, pp. 36-37).

Lot Essay

Maillol was commissioned in 1905 to produce a memorial to the socialist revolutionary, Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881), by a committee that included Georges Clemenceau, Anatole France, Octave Mirbeau and Gustave Geffroy. The Blanquist party was absorbed into the French Unified Socialist Party in 1904-1905. Thereafter, Blanqui spent several years in prison for his political beliefs, which inspired Maillol to create "L'Action enchainee".

Torse de l'Action enchaine was the initial concept, completed as a standing female nude in 1906. It was so unpopular with the local authorities of Puget-Theniers, the birthplace of Blanqui, that it was not unveiled until 1908. The strength and energy of the contorted figure with its arms drawn back contrasting with the sculpture's forward motion, anticipates the full-length nude with its manacled hands and strained head and neck.

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