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Lot Essay
The late Dina Vierny confirmed the authenticity of this sculpture.
First conceived in 1931, Marie is part of a series of sculptures made by Aristide Maillol in preparation for the group composition The Three Graces (1930-37), and reveals the extensive planning and experimentation that went into each of the artist’s sculptures. Maillol was known for spending extended periods of time working out his compositions, gradually adjusting his figures across numerous versions in pursuit of the perfect format. He spent seven years developing The Three Graces, modelling multiple variations or ‘states’ of each of the figures before reaching the final sculpture. Starting with their torsos, Maillol only added limbs and a head when he was satisfied with the balance of the body’s core element. Fine-tuning the posing of his figures as he went along, the artist regularly changed the positioning of arms and legs from version to version, comparing the differing effects in each iteration. Marie is one of the most highly finished preliminary works designed for this piece, and shows the sculptor experimenting with the volume, shape and stance of the figure in his pursuit of an idealised female form.
The Three Graces was envisioned as a hymn to youth and beauty, and Maillol used his attractive young maid, Marie, as the model for two of the figures in the three-person group. Exuding an overwhelmingly placid, stable and self-contained air, she is captured with distinctive emotional restraint by Maillol in the present work. With her smooth curves and elegantly composed form, she exemplifies the radical purity which defined Maillol’s mature aesthetic, as he sought to simplify the female body to a pure celebration of its formal qualities. Although inspired by the real figure of Marie, Maillol uses her form only as a starting point, turning away from a descriptive or psychological portrait to a more abstract, idealised vision which focuses purely on the architecture of her body. Using clear, concise forms, the artist simplifies his model’s contours, achieving an elegant balance of masses which exists purely in the artist’s own imagination. As Maillol explained, ‘The figure mustn’t be a woman of flesh and blood. When doing this sort of thing, one has to place oneself outside of time. It’s got to be eternal…’ (Maillol, quoted in B. Lorquin, Maillol, London, 1995, p. 93). By pushing the figurative representation of Marie to the edge of abstraction, the artist succeeds in transforming his model into an idealised, archetypal representation of Woman.
First conceived in 1931, Marie is part of a series of sculptures made by Aristide Maillol in preparation for the group composition The Three Graces (1930-37), and reveals the extensive planning and experimentation that went into each of the artist’s sculptures. Maillol was known for spending extended periods of time working out his compositions, gradually adjusting his figures across numerous versions in pursuit of the perfect format. He spent seven years developing The Three Graces, modelling multiple variations or ‘states’ of each of the figures before reaching the final sculpture. Starting with their torsos, Maillol only added limbs and a head when he was satisfied with the balance of the body’s core element. Fine-tuning the posing of his figures as he went along, the artist regularly changed the positioning of arms and legs from version to version, comparing the differing effects in each iteration. Marie is one of the most highly finished preliminary works designed for this piece, and shows the sculptor experimenting with the volume, shape and stance of the figure in his pursuit of an idealised female form.
The Three Graces was envisioned as a hymn to youth and beauty, and Maillol used his attractive young maid, Marie, as the model for two of the figures in the three-person group. Exuding an overwhelmingly placid, stable and self-contained air, she is captured with distinctive emotional restraint by Maillol in the present work. With her smooth curves and elegantly composed form, she exemplifies the radical purity which defined Maillol’s mature aesthetic, as he sought to simplify the female body to a pure celebration of its formal qualities. Although inspired by the real figure of Marie, Maillol uses her form only as a starting point, turning away from a descriptive or psychological portrait to a more abstract, idealised vision which focuses purely on the architecture of her body. Using clear, concise forms, the artist simplifies his model’s contours, achieving an elegant balance of masses which exists purely in the artist’s own imagination. As Maillol explained, ‘The figure mustn’t be a woman of flesh and blood. When doing this sort of thing, one has to place oneself outside of time. It’s got to be eternal…’ (Maillol, quoted in B. Lorquin, Maillol, London, 1995, p. 93). By pushing the figurative representation of Marie to the edge of abstraction, the artist succeeds in transforming his model into an idealised, archetypal representation of Woman.