After Aristide Maillol - Lot 42

After Aristide Maillol The Mountain, Posthumous terracotta by Jean Van Dongen, circa 1950 Signed with the monogram M on the base below the back 26 x 25.5 x 10 cm Missing little finger on left hand The original model was made around 1936 Bibliography for similar models: Maillol, London, J. Rewald, 1939, pl. 120, p. 166 (an illustrated terracotta print). Aristide Maillol, 1861-1944, J. Rewald, Paris, 1950 (another illustrated plaster on p. 48). Aristide Maillol, W. George, , London, 1965, no. 200, pp. 234 and 194 (terracotta version illustrated p. 200). Aristide Maillol, W. George, Paris, 1971 (monumental version and another print illustrated pp. 38 and 67). Aristide Maillol et l'âme de la sculpture, W. George, Neuchâtel, 1977, p. 245, no. 115 (larger lead version illustrated on p. 115). Aristide Maillol, B. Lorquin, New York, 1995, pp. 140 and 199 (larger lead version illustrated pp. 136, 138 and 139; monumental stone version illustrated p. 184). Aristide Maillol, Pioneer of Modern Sculpture, L. K. Kramer, PhD thesis, New York University, 2000 (another print illustrated pl. 224; monumental version illustrated pl. 231). Before 1935, Maillol was attached to an architectural conception of the body, marked by permanence and timelessness. From 1935 onwards, the artist strove to transcribe movement and integrate it into classical forms. In 1936, Maillol was thinking of a project that would combine two telluric forces, the mountain and the wind, and to this end, had Dina Verny pose as his model. His idea was to combine stable architecture with movement, without tipping over into gesticulating or grimacing sculpture. At the end of the year, Maillol received a government commission for a monumental version of La Montagne, to be installed at the 1937 Universal Exhibition. At Maillol's request, the sculpture was eventually placed in the courtyard of the Musée d'Art Moderne at the Palais de Tokyo (stone version). For his exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1951, Léger asked Cassou to transport the stone inside the building. Jean Cassou replied, "Léger, you know very well that mountains don't move.