Émile-Antoine Bourdelle

Exhibited by Galerie Malaquais

Material Bronze with brown gilded patina, sand cast by Rudier

Dimensions 67,3 x 23,7 x 28,2 cm

Place of Creation Paris, France

Status Vetted

About the Work

"Anxious, austere, concise, entirely free from the past, from any input other than contemporary.[…] When Rodin saw the plaster, he was struck. He saw the divorce already completed and would never forgive me" from Bourdelle in his text Apollo in Combat (1928).

Head of Apollo on a square base (1909), is Bourdelle's seminal work, marking the turning point when the sculptor began to express himself in his own raw, bold and architectural style, free from the influences of his beginnings, especially Rodin. It held a special place in the heart of the artist, who wrote two texts about it towards the end of his life. The sculpture presents a fascinating double face: one is magnificently modeled, revealing an overall harmony in its features; the other seems to be stylistically related to the Cubists' approach. Our cast is one of the few examples available, the majority of which are in European and American museums. It was previously in two renowned private collections: Henri Potez (1891-1981) and Sam Josefowitz (1922-2015). This exceptional cast by Alexis Rudier has a richly nuanced patina with a strong presence of gold leaf. It is comparable to the finest examples in the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée de Lausanne and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Show moreless

Provenance

Henry Potez collection (1891-1981)
Bailly-Pommery sale, Briest and Rieunnier, Paris, March 19th 1996, lot 3 (Henry Potez collection)
Switzerland, private collection (Geneva)
Sam Josefowitz collection (2000s)

Literature

- 1928 BOURDELLE : Antoine Bourdelle, "Apollo in Combat," October, 1928, Bourdelle Museum archives, MB d.5927
- 1929 BOURDELLE: Antoine Bourdelle, "Apollo in Combat," September, 1929, Bourdelle Museum archives
- 1978 JIANOU DUFET : Jianou, Ionel et Dufet, Michel, Bourdelle, 2nd English edition with a complete and numbered catalogue of the sculptures, Arted, 1978, n°266.
- 1990 ARTICLE: Lenormand-Romain, Antoinette, « La Tête d’Apollon, la ‘cause du divorce’ entre Rodin et Bourdelle » ("The Head of Apollo, 'the cause of the divorce' between Rodin and Bourdelle"), in. La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, n°3, June, 1990, p.212-220.
- 2017 ARTICLE : Simier, Amélie, « Tête d’Apollon (1898-1909), ‘Apollon au combat’ », in. Bourdelle et l’antique, une passion moderne, exhibition catalogue, Bourdelle Museum, Paris, October 4, 2017 – February 4, 2018, pp.100-115.