.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
As an artist, I believe in the enduring virtues of design, drawing, living form, rhythm and proportion. – Arthur Lee.
Arthur Lee’s enduring legacy are true to his own words – as an artist and sculptor he was profoundly influenced by fragments of Antiquity which he studied intently during his studio career in Paris. The impact of those travels remained as a strong undercurrent throughout his career, culminating in a triumphant exhibition era during his lifetime only to be further crowned by acquisitions of his work by major American institutions.
Born in Trondheim, Norway, Lee immigrated with his family to the United States in 1888, but would ultimately decamp to Europe once more to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His early studies at New York’s Art Student’s League, beginning in 1901, exposed Lee to influential artistic circles with introductions to Gertrude Vanderbilt and James Earle Fraser, among others. Vanderbilt sponsored Lee’s move to Paris in 1905 to study at Academie des Beaux Arts, where his oeuvre, with specific focus on the human form, came into full light. It was thereafter he began a robust exhibition era of key works, including the present model Volupté. Lee mounted his first major exhibition of drawings and sculpture at the New York Armory in 1913, where he exhibited his first sculpture, 'The Ethiopian' as well as similar fragmented torsos such as The Virgin and Aphrodite.
In 1915, at his Paris studio, Lee embarked on the production of his iconic Volupté, a sinuous fragmented torso in contrapposto for which he became so well know. Originally conceived in the preparatory stages for Lee's full-scale figure Elle, the artist ultimately executed the figure in various media, including Carrara marble for the present example, as well as rose marble, plaster and bronze. A number of full scale examples of Volupté, as well as ¾ reductions, are extent. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt purchased an example in 1924, which is now retained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (24.239) and was formerly installed in the Sculpture Court. Another example, acquired by Countess Felicia Gizycka and gifted to the Museum of Modern Art was eventually sold to fund future museum acquisitions (see Christie’s, New York, 1 March 2012, lot 187, $92,500). A bronze model remains in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum (30.1108). Additional full-scale and reductions are held in private collections, such as a rose marble example still in possession of the Lee family.
The present example of Volupté was acquired directly from Lee by the present owner’s father, who maintained a playful correspondence from with Lee from 1940-41. The previous owner, to whom the present work was a prized possession, wrote excitedly in the years following about the work and its artistic achievement – 'I truly feel it surpasses the sculpture done during the Glory that was Greece - Only one other sculpture I could think of which is abstract – Mademoiselle Pogany by Brancusi' (1976).
Christie’s is grateful to The Arthur Lee Foundation and Robin Lee for their assistance in preparing this catalogue note.
Arthur Lee’s enduring legacy are true to his own words – as an artist and sculptor he was profoundly influenced by fragments of Antiquity which he studied intently during his studio career in Paris. The impact of those travels remained as a strong undercurrent throughout his career, culminating in a triumphant exhibition era during his lifetime only to be further crowned by acquisitions of his work by major American institutions.
Born in Trondheim, Norway, Lee immigrated with his family to the United States in 1888, but would ultimately decamp to Europe once more to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His early studies at New York’s Art Student’s League, beginning in 1901, exposed Lee to influential artistic circles with introductions to Gertrude Vanderbilt and James Earle Fraser, among others. Vanderbilt sponsored Lee’s move to Paris in 1905 to study at Academie des Beaux Arts, where his oeuvre, with specific focus on the human form, came into full light. It was thereafter he began a robust exhibition era of key works, including the present model Volupté. Lee mounted his first major exhibition of drawings and sculpture at the New York Armory in 1913, where he exhibited his first sculpture, 'The Ethiopian' as well as similar fragmented torsos such as The Virgin and Aphrodite.
In 1915, at his Paris studio, Lee embarked on the production of his iconic Volupté, a sinuous fragmented torso in contrapposto for which he became so well know. Originally conceived in the preparatory stages for Lee's full-scale figure Elle, the artist ultimately executed the figure in various media, including Carrara marble for the present example, as well as rose marble, plaster and bronze. A number of full scale examples of Volupté, as well as ¾ reductions, are extent. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt purchased an example in 1924, which is now retained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (24.239) and was formerly installed in the Sculpture Court. Another example, acquired by Countess Felicia Gizycka and gifted to the Museum of Modern Art was eventually sold to fund future museum acquisitions (see Christie’s, New York, 1 March 2012, lot 187, $92,500). A bronze model remains in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum (30.1108). Additional full-scale and reductions are held in private collections, such as a rose marble example still in possession of the Lee family.
The present example of Volupté was acquired directly from Lee by the present owner’s father, who maintained a playful correspondence from with Lee from 1940-41. The previous owner, to whom the present work was a prized possession, wrote excitedly in the years following about the work and its artistic achievement – 'I truly feel it surpasses the sculpture done during the Glory that was Greece - Only one other sculpture I could think of which is abstract – Mademoiselle Pogany by Brancusi' (1976).
Christie’s is grateful to The Arthur Lee Foundation and Robin Lee for their assistance in preparing this catalogue note.