Description
Baltasar Lobo (Spanish, 1910-1993) À la source, 1982-1989 Bronze print with a shaded brown patina, signed and justified n°3/8, cast in 1990. Founder's mark: "Susse frères Paris". Height 55.5 cm, length 127.5 cm, width 48.5 cm. Bibliography : - Kosme de Barano, Maria Jaume and Maria Luz Cardenas, "Baltaza Lobo, catalogo razonada de esculturas, vol.1", Turner publishing, 2021, n°8904. - Joseph Emile Müller, "Baltasar Lobo, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculptée", La bibliothèque des Arts Paris, 1985, the same model in different dimensions reproduced under numbers 517, 518 and 520. LOBO'S SOURCE Born in 1910 near Zamora in Castile, Lobo is one of the artists who made Paris the cradle of the avant-garde. His apprenticeship in direct carving, in his young years in Madrid, was compromised by the Spanish war. A committed Republican - his father was hit by a shell while digging trenches - Baltasar Lobo fled Francoism and arrived in France. There he met the artist Henri Laurens and simplified his sculpture through contact with Brancusi, Arp and Henry Moore. Making the nude his favourite subject, he is more easily classified with the poetic and sensual than with the naturalists. His immense adoration for Henri Laurens led him to consider the female body as abstract modules. This simplification of the limbs, almost Cézannean, is counterbalanced by their erotic sensuality. The body takes shape without ever losing its femininity. Although he reduces the body to its most extreme form, with the removal of the head, arms and legs, this does not prevent him from multiplying the variations. The texture, smooth, soft and inviting to the caress of the hand, recalls that of the Cycladic idols. Our version of "At the Source" is surprisingly museum-like. The subject is here adorned with all her attributes; with the exception of the feet, the woman's body is treated in its entirety. Three versions, 36, 42 and 52 centimetres long, illustrate this model in marble and bronze from 1982. Our version, remarkably cast by Susse in Paris, explores the life-size theme. As synthetic and primitive as Henry Moore's sculptures and as sensual as Aristide Maillol's, Lobo miraculously succeeds in preserving the beauty of the woman from its heartbreaking modernity. Jacques Farran
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Baltasar Lobo (Spanish, 1910-1993) À la source, 1982-1989 Bronze print with a shaded brown patina, signed and justified n°3/8, cast in 1990. Founder's mark: "Susse frères Paris". Height 55.5 cm, length 127.5 cm, width 48.5 cm. Bibliography : - Kosme de Barano, Maria Jaume and Maria Luz Cardenas, "Baltaza Lobo, catalogo razonada de esculturas, vol.1", Turner publishing, 2021, n°8904. - Joseph Emile Müller, "Baltasar Lobo, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculptée", La bibliothèque des Arts Paris, 1985, the same model in different dimensions reproduced under numbers 517, 518 and 520. LOBO'S SOURCE Born in 1910 near Zamora in Castile, Lobo is one of the artists who made Paris the cradle of the avant-garde. His apprenticeship in direct carving, in his young years in Madrid, was compromised by the Spanish war. A committed Republican - his father was hit by a shell while digging trenches - Baltasar Lobo fled Francoism and arrived in France. There he met the artist Henri Laurens and simplified his sculpture through contact with Brancusi, Arp and Henry Moore. Making the nude his favourite subject, he is more easily classified with the poetic and sensual than with the naturalists. His immense adoration for Henri Laurens led him to consider the female body as abstract modules. This simplification of the limbs, almost Cézannean, is counterbalanced by their erotic sensuality. The body takes shape without ever losing its femininity. Although he reduces the body to its most extreme form, with the removal of the head, arms and legs, this does not prevent him from multiplying the variations. The texture, smooth, soft and inviting to the caress of the hand, recalls that of the Cycladic idols. Our version of "At the Source" is surprisingly museum-like. The subject is here adorned with all her attributes; with the exception of the feet, the woman's body is treated in its entirety. Three versions, 36, 42 and 52 centimetres long, illustrate this model in marble and bronze from 1982. Our version, remarkably cast by Susse in Paris, explores the life-size theme. As synthetic and primitive as Henry Moore's sculptures and as sensual as Aristide Maillol's, Lobo miraculously succeeds in preserving the beauty of the woman from its heartbreaking modernity. Jacques Farran
