- 366
Aristide Maillol
Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Aristide Maillol
- La Nuit, socle mobile
- Inscribed with the artist's monogram and with the foundry mark E. Godard Fondeur Paris and numbered 3/6; inscribed with the artist's monogram (on the base)
- Bronze
- Height: 7 1/2 in.
- 19 cm
Provenance
Dina Vierny, Paris
Acquired from the above
Acquired from the above
Literature
Bertrand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, Paris, 2002, illustration of another cast p. 66
Condition
Very good condition. Variegated green patina. The sculpture has an associated separate base. Some rubbing to the underside of figure and to her left hip. There is minor surface dirt in deeper crevices. Light rubbing to the patina at the figure lower back. One scuff to her left shoulder. The base has some minor rubbing to the foot imprint.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
La Nuit epitomizes the intimacy and simplicity of expression that collectors have long prized in Maillol's smaller tabletop sculptures. The figure is an allegorical conception of the nighttime which the sculptor has expressed in a posture of rest and repose. Maillol chose not to identify night with sleep per se, instead suggesting a temporary state of passive rest, withdrawn from the bustle of daily life. There is an emotional aspect present here as well; this repose carries a suggestion of world-weariness, tinged with introspection and perhaps even melancholy.
Maillol began La Nuit in 1902, and by the end of the year produced the initial version of this subject in plaster and stone, in which the figure was modeled separately from its base, as is reflected in the present bronze. He took the pose from a figure titled Tristesse, which he had conceived as part of a proposal for a monument to Émile Zola, who died in September 1902. Maillol sought to express in the figure's posture his own dejection at the treatment which Zola had received for his most famous and then still controversial act of advocacy, his defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer unjustly convicted of treason amid a growing wave of anti-Semitism in France.
Maillol further refined La Nuit following his return from Greece, and the final version evokes the art dynastic Egypt as well as Neo-Classicism. Bernard Lorquin has pointed out, "It has the geometrical perfection of an Egyptian cube sculpture, but is all above all a new conception of human presence as expressed by sculpture. The introspective attitude of Night, its silence and inwardness prefigured what other attempted by every possible means. I am thinking particularly of the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti, in which the figure is reduced to its own inward being" (quoted in Maillol and America (exhibition catalogue), Marlborough Gallery, Inc., New York, 2004, p. 8).
Maillol began La Nuit in 1902, and by the end of the year produced the initial version of this subject in plaster and stone, in which the figure was modeled separately from its base, as is reflected in the present bronze. He took the pose from a figure titled Tristesse, which he had conceived as part of a proposal for a monument to Émile Zola, who died in September 1902. Maillol sought to express in the figure's posture his own dejection at the treatment which Zola had received for his most famous and then still controversial act of advocacy, his defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer unjustly convicted of treason amid a growing wave of anti-Semitism in France.
Maillol further refined La Nuit following his return from Greece, and the final version evokes the art dynastic Egypt as well as Neo-Classicism. Bernard Lorquin has pointed out, "It has the geometrical perfection of an Egyptian cube sculpture, but is all above all a new conception of human presence as expressed by sculpture. The introspective attitude of Night, its silence and inwardness prefigured what other attempted by every possible means. I am thinking particularly of the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti, in which the figure is reduced to its own inward being" (quoted in Maillol and America (exhibition catalogue), Marlborough Gallery, Inc., New York, 2004, p. 8).