Who was Robert Couturier and what was his background?
Robert Couturier was born in 1905 in Angoulême. In 1920, he trained as a lithographer at the Ecole Estienne in Paris. Two years later, he had to interrupt his studies due to the death of his father. In order to earn a living, he worked as a practitioner in lithography workshops. In 1928, he met Maillol, who encouraged him to pursue his career in sculpture. Maillol said to him: "You, Couturier, in the genre of the unkempt, you will do something very good". Indeed, the sculptures of Robert Couturier, generally in bronze, are particular. He conceived an innovative representation of the human body by stretching their limbs and playing with space. The bronzes Jeune femme lamelliforme (1951) and Petit faune musicien (1958) are examples. The same year, he set up his own studio in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris. In his free time, Robert Couturier rubbed shoulders with other artists such as Janniot or Matisse, which allowed him to broaden his artistic thinking.
From the 1930's onwards, Robert Couturier began to gain recognition. In 1930, he won the competitions organized by the Florence Blumenthal Foundation and the American Foundation for French Thought and Art. Two years later, he taught drawing in the capital. In 1936, his sculpture The Gardener was installed on the esplanade of the Trocadero. The following year, he and Emile Aillaud presented sculptures at the Pavillon de l'élégance during the Universal Exhibition. In 1938, he helped Maillol to create La Rivière. In addition, he joined the movement advocating a representation of man according to traditional artistic values.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Robert Couturier was arrested. However, he managed to escape to the free zone. In 1943, he participated in the creation of the Salon de mai, bringing together surrealist and abstract artists. In 1946, he became a professor at the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. However, his academic career did not mean the end of his artistic career. Indeed, he participated for the first time in a solo exhibition of his work in London. Then, in the 1950s, he participated in major exhibitions such as the Venice and São Paulo Biennials in 1950 and 1951. In 1963, he left the School of Decorative Arts to teach at the Beaux-Arts in Paris.
The link he had with the Dina Vierny gallery comes from the fact that Robert Couturier was noticed from the beginning by Aristide Maillol in 1928 who said to him "You, Couturier, in the genre of ill-fitting, you will do something very well.  Couturier and Maillol became friends. Robert Couturier was a great admirer of Maillol: for a time he was his student and his first sculptures reveal a certain influence from Maillol.
The common denominator of these two artists is the female nude, to which they both dedicated most of their work.
But let's get back to Robert Couturier and his sculptures, whose character is undeniable.
If you don't know him yet, after this presentation and the illustrations in this video, you will now know how to recognize a Robert Couturier sculpture.
With a minimum of means, he sculpts feminine nudes often filiform,
The sculptures are all built in a stretched form, playing between the full and the hollow in materials such as plaster or bronze.
Like a writing of full and untied, his sculpture is poetic and our glance runs on the traced forms like a drawing with raised hand without interruption, without distraction, without hesitation.
This is what makes Robert Couturier's sculpture so poetic.
Everything is in the suggestion, the essential is said, in the sobriety, the discretion and the spectator does the rest.
To quote Valérie Da Costa, author of the catalog raisonné of Robert Couturier: "There is in the sculptor Robert Couturier a correctness of gesture, a restraint which, perhaps, comes from his origins.
You will see that, like any artist, there are nuances to be made according to his creative periods, but the essential is there and the intrinsic of his approach has not changed.
As early as 1934, Robert Couturier participated in numerous exhibitions, including the Galerie Georges Petit, and became friends with Georges Huisman, director of the Beaux-Arts. At that time, he was in charge of commissions for the 1937 International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques in Modern Life and it is easy to see that The Gardener, which still exists at the Trocadero in Paris, differs from the more refined sculptures that he will make later on.
But in terms of commissions, the artist is still often caught in a straitjacket where the total freedom of expression is somewhat curtailed.
It is true that when one sees this sculpture in a classical way, one cannot help but be impressed by it. 
But Robert Couturier is attached to tradition: he signed the manifesto "Rupture" which defends the return to the craft and traditional values.
In fact the sculpture "Jambes écartées et la jeune fille acoudée" dated 1947 marks the beginning of the opening of the sculptor. But it is really at the beginning of the 50s, that the first sculptures of the artist appear built by the vacuum where only the framework or the soul of the sculpture is left visible.
Take the famous sculpture "Fillette autant à la corde" which illustrates this perfectly or "Femme s'essuyant la jambe" (Woman wiping her leg), the first copy of which was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.
Another period that should be remembered is that of the "Boxed Women", true architectural sculptures, which he made from cardboard boxes, as if to reflect the female complexity.
Because even if it seems simple, Robert Couturier's sculpture can also be complex, like this series from the late 70s on the theme of the cage.
"Small open cage": another symbol of the perplexity of the woman who reveals herself when she wants to.
A period that I appreciate less is that of the 90s when the sculptor recovers objects.
We had in our hands a composition in plaster made in 1956 (see card) which reflected all the poetry of the artist. The reliefs had been conceived in adequacy with the light of the place.
I would like to pay a tribute to Martel Greiner who passed away prematurely and who also presented this artist in her galleries and salons.
Let's go back to Robert Couturier's rating
Whereas until recently small sculptures were sold for between 3,000 and 5,000 euros, today the prices are between 5,000 and 10,000 euros
Curvilinear 6100 euros
Crossed legs 10,000 euros
The large sculptures, less numerous on the auction market, exceed 30,000 euros, some flirting with 50,000 euros.
The Moon 34,000 euros 
The summer 57.000 euros
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Elodie Couturier 
Expertisez.com 

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