JACQUES LIPCHITZ (1891-1973)

Details

JACQUES LIPCHITZ (1891-1973)

Rape of Europa

signed and marked with thumbprint on the top of the base 'J. Lipchitz', inscribed on the side of the base 'BEDFORD. BRONZE. FDRY. NY.'--bronze with brown patina
Length: 22½in. (57.2cm.)
Cast in 1938

Provenance

Otto Gerson Fine Art Associates, New York
William and Virginia Booth Vogel, Milwaukee (acquired from the above; by descent to the present owner)

Literature

M. Raynal, Jacques Lipchitz, Paris, 1947 (another cast illustrated)
R. Goldwater, Lipchitz, Cologne-Berlin, 1954, no. 17 (another cast illustrated)
I. Patai, Encounters: The Life of Jacques Lipchitz, New York, 1961, fig. 33 (another cast illustrated, p. 271)

Lot Essay

In Greek mythology, the god Jupiter seduced Europa, the daughter of the King of Phoenicia, by transforming himself into a bull and enticing her to mount his back. He then carried her off to Crete. In this sculpture Europa clings to the bull as he swims toward their destination. Lipchitz noted that "the appendage at the back suggest a fishlike form. In my collection there is an extremely rare Coptic piece in which the bull takes on a different aquatic shape. I think I may have been in influenced by this." (J. Lipchitz, My Life in Sculpture, New York, 1972, p. 140)