阿里斯蒂·麥約

Dina Vierny, Paris

Private Collection, Japan (acquired from the above in 1995)

Tokyo, Mitsukoshi Art Museum, Shinjuku; Hokkaido, Kakodate Museum of Art; Kagawa, Takamatsu City Museum of Art; Akita Museum of Modern Art; Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art & Hyogo, Himeji City Museum, Maillol, 1994-94, no. 72, illustrated in the catalogue

Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, Paris, 1964, pp. 206 and 247, another cast illustrated, p. 221

John Rewald, "Maillol remembered," in Artistide Maillol 1861-1944 (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, plaster version illustrated pp. 24 & 26

Bertand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, Geneva, 1994, illustration of another cast in color p. 149 & p. 151

L.K. Kramer, Aristide Maillol (1861-1944): Pioneer of Modern Sculpture, Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2000, pp. 267-268 (titled The Rose; another cast illustrated, pl. 243; another cast illustrated again, pl. 244)

L'Harmonie encapsulates Maillol's lifelong quest for balance, beauty and precision.  Maillol began creating this figure in 1940, working from a live model who posed in his studio in Banyuls. During the weeks leading up to the Occupation, the historian John Rewald visited the artist in the South of France, while he was in the midst of creating this sculpture. Maillol referred to his creation as "La Rose" and would continue to work on it for the rest of his life, perfecting the contours of the torso and thighs, the tilt of the head and the angle of the shoulders.  The figure never received arms, which Maillol would only ever add once the balance of the body was complete, but the omission was something that he may have intended for this sculpture.  A lifelong admirer of the Venus de Milo, Maillol once remarked that the addition of arms to that icon of antiquity "would add nothing to its beauty; on the contrary they would probably detract from it" (quoted in B. Lorquin, Maillol, New York, 1995, p. 112). Following the artist's death in 1944, the critic Louis Baschet titled this work Harmonie on account of the harmonious proportions that Maillol achieved.

The model for Harmonie was Dina Vierny, a French Resistance leader of Russian origin who served as the artist's muse during the last decade of his life. Vierny would become the inheritor of his estate and the world-renowned expert on his art. But when she posed for this sculpture, as depicted in the photograph that Rewald took of her standing next to the plaster, she was the physical embodiment of Maillol's vision.  "It was an astounding spectacle: two naked girls side by side, related and yet dissimilar," Rewald recalled.  "A spectacle that made is possible to perceive clearly the transposition  the artist had achieved.  It became evident to what degree the model was but a guide for the sculptor and with what obstinancy he was pursuing a preconceived idea one could almost say in spite of the harmonious forms this beautiful create offered him.  Indeed, Maillol was gathering from the living source what information he needed" (J. Rewald, "Maillol Remembered," Aristide Maillol 1861-1944, op. cit., p. 27).

According to Vierny, the present bronze was cast in a numbered edition of six, plus two artist's proofs.  The present work is number 3 from the enumerated edition.