19th & 20th Century Sculpture
19th & 20th Century Sculpture
Ary Bitter
Leda and the Swan
Lot Closed
July 14, 10:08 AM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Ary Bitter
French
1883 - 1973
Leda and the Swan
signed: ary Bitter
white marble, with a wood base
marble: 32 by 86cm., 12½by 33⅞in.
base: 2 by 92cm.,¾by 36¼in.
A pupil of Jacques Coutan, Ary Bitter was a distinguished proponent of the Art Deco style in sculpture, succeeding in translating its stylised elegance into the figurative tradition. He specialised in the depiction of animals as well as female nudes, as exemplified in the present marble, and exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon between 1910 and 1939, obtaining a gold medal in 1924.
Significant marbles by the sculptor, like the present group of Leda and the Swan, rarely appear on the market. Bitter's interpretation of this risqué subject from Greek mythology is profoundly sensual. In her reclining form, with her head thrown back in ecstasy, the nude recalls the fin-de-siècle masterpiece La Grande Névrose by Jacques Loysel, which was shown at the Salon in 1896 and sold in these rooms on 16 February 2017 for £1.9 million. It is possible that Bitter was inspired by this work in the conception of the present marble.
Significant marbles by the sculptor, like the present group of Leda and the Swan, rarely appear on the market. Bitter's interpretation of this risqué subject from Greek mythology is profoundly sensual. In her reclining form, with her head thrown back in ecstasy, the nude recalls the fin-de-siècle masterpiece La Grande Névrose by Jacques Loysel, which was shown at the Salon in 1896 and sold in these rooms on 16 February 2017 for £1.9 million. It is possible that Bitter was inspired by this work in the conception of the present marble.