Aristide MAILLOL (1861-1944) Etude pour le monument à Paul C - Lot 145

Aristide MAILLOL (1861-1944) Etude pour le monument à Paul Cézanne, 1912-1925 Bronze proof with brown patina. Signed on the terrace, Alexis Rudier Paris, and numbered 4/4. W 32 x H 19 x D 12cm Provenance: Galerie Univers du Bronze, 27-29 rue de Penthièvre, 75008, Paris A certificate from Mr. Olivier Lorquin dated March 4, 2010 will be given to the buyer. A certificate from Galerie Univers du Bronze will be given to the buyer (n°100311). In 1912, a committee of artists from Aix-en-Provence, chaired by Francis Jourdain, commissioned Maillol to create a sculpture in tribute to Paul Cézanne, to decorate a public square in his native town. The sculptor chose simply to represent a reclining woman holding an olive branch. Completed in 1925, the city of Aix was forced to reject the work following a particularly violent press campaign. The monument was finally erected in the Jardin des Tuileries in 1929, before being assigned to the Musée d'Art Moderne in 1943 to protect it from erosion. It was then replaced by a lead sculpture, which still stands in the Tuileries. The creation of this monument had given rise to various small models and sketches by Maillol, including our model, in which the woman is depicted without the olive branch. The female nude is a reminder of Cézanne's bathers.