Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private Collection, Switzerland

Rome, Accademia di Francia, Henri Laurens, 1980-81, no. 43, illustrated p. 79

Henri Laurens (exhibition catalogue), Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, 1952, illustration of another cast no. 14 (titled Seated Nude)
Henri Laurens (exhibition catalogue), Grand Palais, Paris, 1967, illustration of another cast no. 45
Sculpture and Drawings by Henri Laurens 1885-1954 (exhibition catalogue), The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 54
Laurens & Braque: Les Donations Laurens et Braque à l'Etat Français (exhibition catalogue), The New York Cultural Center; Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 38
Henri Laurens 1885-1954 (exhibition catalogue), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bern; Museum Villa Stuck, Münich, 1985, no. 58, illustration of another cast p. 129
Henri Laurens: Rétrospective (exhibition catalogue), Musée d'art moderne de la Communauté Urbaine de Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1992-93, illustration of another cast p. 175

Although influenced by the voluptuous nudes of Maillol and Matisse, Laurens developed his own distinctive manner of portraying the female form. Combining organic volumes with energetic angles and curves, Laurens sculpture alludes to the Cubist penchant for deconstructing and recombining the composition. The dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler described this quality of Laurens' work: “The appearance of curvilinear forms in Laurens' work in no way signaled a renunciation of Cubism but was a part of normal evolution towards a new orientation” (Werner Hoffman, The Sculpture of Henri Laurens, New York, 1970, p. 50).

After successfully experimenting with the Cubist idiom between the years 1911 and 1921, Laurens figuration in his sculpture was marked by a turning period in 1935 when he produced L'océanide, La mère and Le torse, works that moved farthest from natural f🧜orms he explored during the late 1920s through the mid-1930s.

FIG. 1  Henri Laurens sculpting La mère, 1935