Joseph & Sylvia Slifka, New York (acquired by 1958)
Grosvenor Gallery, London
Mrs A. E. Goldberg (acquired from the above in April 1961; Sale: Christie's, London, 29th June 1987, lot 73)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

New York, The American Federation of Arts, Italian Art of the 20th Century, 1957-58, no. 29

Umbro Apollonio, Marino Marini scultore, Milan, 1953, illustration of another cast pl. 104
Eduard Trier, Marino Marini, Cologne, 1954, illustration of another cast pl. 19
Helmut Lederer & Eduard Trier, Marino Marini, Stuttgart, 1961, illustration of another cast pl. 69
Patrick Waldberg, Herbert Read & Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Marino Marini, Complete Works, New York, 1970, no. 280, illustration of another cast p. 365
Carlo Pirovano, Marino Marini - Scultore, Milan, 1972, no. 286, illustration of another cast p. 163
Carlo Pirovano (ed.), Marino Marini - Catalogo del Museo San Pancrazio di Firenze, Milan, 1988, illustration of another cast p. 138
Giovanni Iovane, Marino Marini, Milan, 1990, p. 106
Marco Meneguzzo, Marino Marini - Cavalli e Cavalieri, Milan, 1997, no. 61, pp. 131-133
Fondazione Marino Marini (ed.), Marino Marini, Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculptures, Milan, 1998, no. 357,♏ illustration of the plꩲaster p. 252

Rich brown patina. One corner of the base has lifted slightly. This work is in very good original condition.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This work is part of a truly remarkable Scandinavian collection that represents a lifetime of experience and involvement with the arts. Taken as a whole this collection constitutes a distinctive interpretation of Modernism, which sought to capture the bewildering and multiplicitous technological, social and cultural changes that transformed the world at the beginning of the 20th century. Other highlights from the collection, which were sold in the Impressionist & Modern Art and Contemporary Art auctions this summer, include a beautiful example of Picasso's playful juxtaposition of artwork and model in Modèle dans l'atelier, a fine group of Fernand Léger's still-lifes exhibiting the artist's interest in combining figurative and abstract elements, an ex꧅quisite bronze of a standing woman by Alberto Giacometti and some seminal developments in abstraction by Alexander Calder and Jean-Paul Riopelle.

 

The present work is a striking example of Marini's horse and rider theme, whose extraordinary power and beauty lie in the careful rendering of its surface, showing the artist's almost painterly attention to finish. Inspired like most Italian artists by antiquity, Marini was drawn not to the refinement of Hellenistic sculpture, but to the rougher, more energetic expression of the Archaic period in Greece and Etruscan sculpture in Italy. Amongst 20th century sculptors, Marini was one of the most actively involved in the finishing of his pieces before they left the foundry, often applying varying surface marks and paint to his bronzes. A stunning example of Marini's involvement in hand-chiselling a sculpture, Cavaliere exhibits a striking variety of surface ♛treatments that invests the work with an iꦰmmediacy and versatile quality rarely achieved in this medium.

In the years before and during the Second World War, Marini executed his horses with a certain grace and poise reminiscent of the elegance of classical sculpture. In the 1950s, however, this subject was charged with an anxiety that reflected the artist's helplessness in the face of the transformation of Italian society by the effects of war and industrial modernisation. In Cavaliere the horse is planted steadfastly in the ground, with its legs firmly rooted to the four corners of the base; with an energetic backward movement of its upper body, it is throwing off the rider, who is about to fall with his hands swung up in the air. The movement of the two bodies is caught at the critical point when the equilibrium is broken, when the inevitability of the fall becomes imminent in the eyes of the rider as well as of the spectator, without the actual fall being yet materialised. The artist captures the scene at its most dramatic and climactic moment, thus making the psychological element of realisation as powerful as the physical tension. The intersecting diagonal lines of the horse and rider create a dynamic relationship between the two bodies, whilst the angular, geometric shapes that dominate the work emphasise the dra💟ma of the movement that we are witnessing.

Giovanni Carandente wrote about the synergy between the horse and rider in Marini's work: 'The myth of the rider, of the man who derives his force and impetus from the beast that he dominates and drives, but by which he is also unsaddled, grew from year to year, brought worldwide celebrity to the sculptor, and resulted in repeated masterpieces. In some works the connection between the horse and the rider becomes almost symbiotic, as though the artist would melt the two bodies into one to represent Nessus, the mythical centaur' (G. Carandente, in Fondazione Marino Marini (ed.), op. cit., pp. 12-13).