117 - Émile Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929)

Émile Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) The Virgin with the Offering Model created around 1920 Marble sculpture Signed “ANTOINE / BOURDELLE” and bears the artist’s monogram on the back H. 65 cm Conceived as a monumental and commemorative work, the Virgin with the Offering was commissioned from Émile Antoine Bourdelle by Joseph Vogt, the son of an Alsatian industrialist who wished to fulfill his father’s wish to celebrate the village’s survival during World War I. The artist created a static, triumphant maternal figure whose stern features are balanced by the softness of her curves. Using his wife and daughter as models, Bourdelle sculpted an initial small study (approx. 64 cm) that he presented to the public, before exhibiting the full-scale plaster model at the 1922 Salon d’Automne. The work was met with great acclaim there. The painter Maurice Denis described it in these terms in the newspaper *La Vie*: “This Virgin Mother is a masterpiece of modern art and of religious art of all time.” Related works: -Émile Antoine Bourdelle, Virgin with the Offering, 1919–1923, stone statue, H. 600 cm, Niederbrück; -Émile Antoine Bourdelle, Virgin of the Offering, 1921, marble, H. 67 x W. 22.5 x D. 18 cm, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. BEK 1227; -Émile Antoine Bourdelle, Virgin of the Offering, 1920, marble, signed “ANT BOURDELLE,” H. 67.5 x W. 24.5 x D. 17.5 cm, Princeton, The Art Museum at Princeton University, inv. y1943-165; -Émile Antoine Bourdelle, Virgin and Child—square headdress, draped child, original plaster?, 66.6 x 24.2 x 14.2 cm, signed and dated “1920 / ANTOINE / BOURDELLE,” bears the inscription “A / MAUVIETTE / 1920,” Paris, Musée Bourdelle, inv. MBPL4698. Related literature: -Gaston Varenne, *Bourdelle par lui-même, sa pensée et son art*, Paris, Fasquelle, 1937; -Ionel Jianou, Michel Dufet, *Bourdelle*, third edition with a complete and numbered catalog of sculptures, Paris, Arted Éditions d’art, 1984, p. 130.