Henri Laurens

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Svenskfranska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1969

Marthe Laurens (ed.), Henri Laurens Sculpteur, années 1915 à 1924, Paris, 1955, no. IV-1, illustration of another cast p. 74
Laurens (exhibition catalogue), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (& travelling), 1962, no. 3, illustration of another cast n.p.  
Henri Laurens, Exposition de la donation aux Musées Nationaux (exhibition catalogue), Grand Palais, Paris, 1967, no. 3, illustration of another cast n.p.
Werner Hofmann, The Sculpture of Henri Laurens, New York, 1970, illustration of another cast p. 105
Las Formas del Cubismo, Escultura 1909-1919 (exhibition catalogue), Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2002, illustration of another cast p. 156

Attractive black patina. Apart from some surface dirt in the crevices and minor surface wear, this work is in overall very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue.
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Femme à l'éventailis an exceptional example of Laurens' work, fully absorbed with a strict interpretation of the Cubist aesthetic, a movement introduced to him by Fernand Léger. The angularity of the reclining nude and the geometric composition monumentally typifies the artist's austere Cubist rendering of the human figure early in his career. The primary motivation behind Laurens' sculpture at this stage was the creation of a form of art based on a non-figurative vocabulary of sculptural signs. The artist was not concerned by trying to impart a likeness of the subject in his sculpture, but with the formal aspect of the work that he referred to as 'the sculptural event'.

Like his fellow Cubists, Laurens was primarily interested with the formal rhythms of line and volume. In his early work the relationship of the sculpture to its subject is not due to a resemblance but through various motifs that provide signs of the idea or inspiration behind the work. Like many of his fellow artists, Laurens would later relax these rules to allow a more figurative interpretation of the Cubist ideal, creating curvaceous sculptures of the female form. This work however is an example of Laurens' geometrical sculpture during the period when he applied a rigorous analytical method to his work.