MARINO MARINI | Piccolo Cavaliere (Small Rider)

Curt Valentin Gallery, New York
Muriel Newman, Chicago
Holland-Goldowsky Gallery, Chicago
Private Collection, Chicago (acquired from the above on November 7, 1960)
Thence by descent

Sculpture of the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1953, illustration of another cast n.p.
Marino Marini (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthus, Zurich, 1962, no. 60, illustration of another cast p. 60
Herbert Read, Patrick Waldberg & Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, The Complete Works of Marino Marini, New York, 1970, no. 279, illustration of another cast p. 365
Carlo Pirovano, Marino Marini scultore, Milan, 1972, no. 285, illustration of another cast p. 163
Marco Meneguzzo, Marino Marini, Cavalli e cavalieri, Milan, 1997, no. 60, illustration of another cast p. 220
Fondazione Marino Marini, ed., Marino Marini, Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculptures, Milan, 1998, no. 359B, illustration of another cast p. 253

The work is in excellent condition. Variegated brown patina. The bronze is mounted to a black stone base with screws at several places. The surface is richly textured with hand chiseling and scraping by the artist. There is some minor surface dust in the deeper crevices.
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.
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A dominant theme of Marini’s art, the subject of horse and rider underwent a number of stylistic transformations throughout the decades; from the simple, rounded forms of the early 1940s to the highly stylized, almost abstract manner of his late works. Having lived in Switzerland during the second half of the war, Marini returned to Milan in 1946 and immediately started working, developing some of his favored motifs into highly sophisticated and refined images. As Carlo Pirovano wrote: "When he returned to Milan after the war...Marino began to work again with great enthusiasm. He seemed to be possessed by an uncontrollable creative drive that expressed itself not so much in the formulation of new themes or the proposal of refined narrative motifs as in the sophisticated formal variation of compositions that were apparently banal and predictable in their subject matter" (Carlo Pirovano in Marino Marini, Mitografia (exhibition catalogue), Galleria dello Scudo, Verona, 1994-95, p. 52).

Marini’s role as a leading sculptor on the Italian and international scene was reaffirmed at the Venice Biennale of 1948, where he was elected as one of the jury members and assigned an exhibition room for his work. His renderings of the horse and rider theme during this period are characterized by a sense of tranquility, with both man and animal appearing unperturbed, unlike the more dramatic, falling figures that dominated Marini’s sculpture of the 1950s. The link between horse and rider became nearly spiritual, with Pirovano observing: "The interaction between the two protagonists increased in intensity, with ever-closer links creating interdependence that was emotional rather than merely functional (in the sense of the use of the animal simply as a means of transport)" (ibid., p. 54).

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fondazione Marino Marini.