Jacques Lipchitz

Fine Arts Associates (Otto M. Gerson), New York
Samuel & Luella Maslon, Rancho Mirage, California (acquired from the above on November 22, 1957 and sold by the estate: Sotheby's, New York, May 8, 2002, lot 3)
Acquired at the above sale

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Drawings, Paintings & Sculpture from Three Private Collections, 1960, no. 97

Andrew Carduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, New York, 1952, illustration of the basalt version p. 140
Abraham Marie Hammacher, Jacques Lipchitz, His Sculpture, New York, 1960, no. 44, illustration of the basalt version p. 174
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, ed., Modern Sculpture from the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, New York, 1962, no. 242, illustration of another cast
Lipchitz, The Cubist Period, 1913-1930 (exhibition catalogue), Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Inc., New York, 1968, illustration of another cast pl. 58
Robert Goldwater, What is Modern Sculpture?, New York, 1969, illustration of the limestone version p. 21
Jacques Lipchitz & Hjovadur Harvard Arnason, My Life in Sculpture, New York, 1972, fig. 83, illustration of the basalt version p. 102
Abraham Marie Hammacher, Jacques Lipchitz, His Sculpture, New York, 1975, illustration of the basalt version pl. XL
Lipchitz (exhibition catalogue), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978, illustration of another cast p. 65
Albert E. Elsen, Unknown Beings and Other Realities, New York, 1979, illustration of another cast p. 31
David Fraser Jenkins & Derek Pullen, The Lipchitz Gift, Models for Sculpture (exhibition catalogue), The Tate Gallery, London, 1986-87, no. T00311, illustration of another cast p. 45
Jacques Lipchitz, A Life in Sculpture (exhibition catalogue), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri & The Jewish Museum, New York, 1990-91, no. 53, illustration of another cast p. 108
Alan G. Wilkinson & Abraham Marie Hammacher, The Sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, London, 1996, no. 215, illustration of another cast p. 80

Varied green patina. Work is slightly dirty and there are a few scattered spots of accretion in the deeper crevices. Otherwise fine. Very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Femme couchée à la guitare was originally commissioned for the garden of La Pradat, a home designed by the Modernist architect Le Corbusier. Originally executing it in black basalt and later in white stone, Lipchitz invested this sculpture with an aesthetic that was harmonious with the outdoors and its avant-garde surroundings. The subject of the work is the traditional Cubist theme of a figure with guitar, most famously employed by Picasso. Here Lipchitz has reinterpreted this motif with an entirely fresh approach that incorporates light and negative space. Lipchitz referred to this sculpture as a “transparent,” as its interstices and voids allowed for the surrounding space of the garden to become an integral part of the composition.

In his autobiography, Lipchitz elaborated upon the spatial dynamics of the present work: “The subject is a reclining figure with a guitar; the curved shape of the right leg is also the shape of the guitar. This is again a total assimilation of the figure to the guitar-object; even the left arm reiterates the shape of the guitar. The work is massively conceived in curvilinear volumes, with a strong sense of frontality, but involving a movement in and out of depth. Thus, the lower, or right, leg is composed at a diagonal directing the eye through the space below the left leg. Similar planar diagonals under the head and the left arm emphasize the opening void. This sculpture is a development of the 1925 Seated Man (Meditation), and is a transitional figure in the entire sequence of reclining, embracing groups of the next decade” (Jacques Lipchitz & Hjorvadur Harvard Arnason, My Life in Sculpture, New York, 1972, p. 103).

Other casts of this work are inlcuded in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC and the Tate Gallery, London.