Aristide Maillol

Acquired in May, 1978

Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, London, 1965, illustrations of another cast pp. 190 & p. 193 

Work is in excellent condition. Greenish brown patina. Minor surface dirt in crevices. One or two very miny spots of staining on surface. Otherwise fine, work is in excellent condition.
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La Nymphe, an ode to Maillol's understanding of female sensuality, was executed as a preparation for the left and right figures of the important Les trois Nymphes, cast in 1937 as a hymn to youth.

Maillol combines the formal principles of classical figuration with the sleek aesthetic of 20^th century modernism to create a beautiful and eloquent torso. The easy comparison between the artist's torsos to those of antiquity is intimated by Waldemar George: "Such a comparison would reveal the distinction between the ancient Greeks and the twentieth-century sculptor imbued with their tradition. These torsos would doubtless prove that nothing is born out of nothing; but they also prove that Maillol, the standard-bearer of a living tradition, never blindly accepted a pre-determinated formula... Maillol, the philhellenist, in the sublime and figurative sense of the word, remains uncompelled" (Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, London, 1965, p.82).

The theme of the female nude or nymph dominates Maillol's entire oeuvre, his sculpture defined by smooth, simple contours evoking an idealised vision of female beauty. With true and rich proportions, La Nymphe offers a mature body with lyrical grace and poetic sensuality thus creating a delicate and monumental sculpture. In his comment, Octave Mirabeau's seems to be describing the present nymph: "... Maillol's woman is chaste, ardent and dignified. She presents the idea of force, of the promise of the flesh; she gives the idea of life because she is life. And her strength is tempered by her divinity; is filled with infinite beauty, with natural and spontaneous grace... She is Maillol's Woman, a new approach to the sculpture of our time, a new treasury of admirable, living form" (Quoted in Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, London, 1965, p. 214).

Fig. 1 Another view of the present work
Fig. 2 Aristide Maillol, The Three Nymphs, Bronze, 1930, Paris, Tuileries Gardens