ALBERT BARTHOLOMÉ | Femme au chignon, sortant du bain et s'essuyant les pieds, assise, les jambes croisées (Bathing woman wiping her feet)

With the artist, until 1928;
thence by descent to his wife, Florence Bartholomé, until 1956;
her estate sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 12 June 1956, lot 3;
purchased at the above sale by Jean Braunwald, cousin of the artist

T. Burollet, Albert Bartholomé, 1848-1928: la redécouverte d'un grand sculpteur, Paris, 2017, p. 257, no. S37/I

Overall the condition of the marble is very good. There is particular dirt to the surface; the marble is in attractive studio condition. There is slightly orange natural veining to the marble, consistent with the material, in particular to the back and to the chest. There is a slightly open vein to the proper right upper arm. There are crayon or paint residues including to the proper right shoulder. There are some dirt/ water marks including to the face and chin. There are some very minor chips and abrasions to the base. There is particular dirt to the crevices. There are minor naturally occurring inclusions.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This sensuous marble nude bears witness to a defining phase in Albert Bartholomé’s career: the introduction of Florence Letessier into his professional life as a model, and into his personal life as his second wife. Tragically widowed in 1886, Bartholomé married the beautiful young woman in 1901. She had begun posing for the artist in 1899, at the age of 21, and in return, he supported her singing lessons at the conservatoire de musique. Bartholomé’s choice of wife proved controversial among his circle not only because of Florence’s comparative youth and humble background, but because of her risqué status as his former model; his friend Edgar Degas, though acknowledging her fine looks, remained sceptical of the match. Yet Florence’s effortless beauty, youth, and tenderness provided the sculptor with a new artistic inspiration. This manifested itself most prominently in the creation of a series of female bathers modelled by Bartholomé after Florence from 1899, whose execution in white marble represented the culmination of his engagement with the subject.

According to Thérèse Burollet, the author of the recent monograph on Bartholomé, the sculptor’s bathers epitomise 'une nouvelle vision de la femme qui conjugue un réalisme plus charnel et l’expression d’une beauté à la fois calme et lumineuse' ('a new vision of women which combines a more carnal realism with the expression of a calm and luminous beauty', op. cit., p. 92). In the present marble this aesthetic is exemplified through an intimate composition that focuses on the woman's supple lines. A side view emphasises the smooth contours of the her back, while the rear view creates a subtle eroticism through the soft modulation of flesh. The seemingly mundane activity of bathing, and the spontaneous pose, are tempered by an impressionistic treatment of the marble surface, resulting in an at once fresh and sublime celebration of the female form. The Femme sortant du bain exists in several variants, of which versions in plaster, a limited bronze edition, stone versions and only two examples in white marble have been recorded. The present marble, dated to around 1905, remained in the collection of Florence Bartholomé until her death; it is thus a very personal testament to her intimate and stimulating relationship with the sculptor.

Albert Bartholomé was an autodidact who focused on painting for much of his early career. Following the early death of his wife in 1886, he devoted himself to sculpture. His most famous work, in part a tribute to his deceased wife, remains the Monument to the Dead at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, which he completed in 1899. Together with Rodin's Gates of Hell, this has often been regarded as one of the greatest expressions of symbolist sculpture. Bartholomé won the Grand Prix for sculpture at the Exposition Universelle in 1900 and continued to have a successful career as a sculptor. While his fame was later eclipsed by that of contemporaries such as Rodin, Bartholomé's considerable eminence in early Modernist sculpture is in the process of being rediscovered. The present marble is arguably the most important of his works to come to auction in recent memory, following the sales of two other marbles in these rooms on 12 July 2017 (lot 84) and 13 December 2017 (lot 104).

RELATED LITERATURE
T. Burollet, Albert Bartholomé, 1848-1928: la redécouverte d'un grand sculpteur, Paris, 2017, pp. 87-95, 255-257