DROUOT
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MODERN & 20th CENTURY ART

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Lot 79 - Joseph BERNARD (1866-1931) Young girl with a jug or Water carrier Model created in 1910 Published by A. A Hébrard between 1914 and 1934 Bronze with brown-green shaded patina Signed "J Bernard" on the back of the terrace Bears the publisher's stamp "Cire perdue/ A.A Hébrard" and no. 24 on the back of the terrace. (Minor oxidation and patina wear, notably on the left arm). Height 53 cm and base dim. 2.5 x 12.6 x 15.8 cm Related work : - Joseph Bernard, Porteuse d'eau, 1912, bronze, H. 175 cm, signed on the base on the back "J.Bernard" 1912 and bears the founder's stamp A.A.HEBRARD / PERDUE, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, inv. no. RF 3161 ; - Joseph Bernard, Porteuse d'eau, bronze, signed and stamped Cire Perdue / A.A Hébrard and n° 22, Chicago, The Art Institute, n° inv.1943.1189. Related literature: - Exposition des œuvres de Joseph Bernard à l'Hôtel de la Revue ' les Arts ', in Les Arts, August 1, 1914, pp. 16/32 ; - Luc Benoit, "Joseph Bernard (1866-1931)", in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1932, vol. 2, pp. 217-228; - Didier Chautant, Recherches sur la vie et l'œuvre de Joseph Bernard (1866-1931), sculpteur français, Louvre School thesis directed by Jacques Thirion, Paris, 1977; - René Jullian, Joseph Bernard, Éd. Fondation de Coubertin, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuses, 1989; no. 146, pp. 298-302, our copy quoted p. 298; - Ss. dir. Alice Massé and Sylvie Carlier, Joseph Bernard 1866-1931. De Pierre et de Volupté, cat. Exp. held from October 18, 2020 to February 21, 2021 at the Paul-Dini Museum, Villefrance-sur-Saône, and from March 20 to June 20, 2021 at the Piscine-musée d'art et d'industrie André-Diligent, Roubaix, Édition Snoeck, Gand, 2020 notice by Valérie Montalbetti: "La Jeune fille à la Cruche", pp. 220-221; - Annick Lemoine and Juliette Singer, Le Paris de la modernité, 1905-1925, cat. Exp. held November 14-April 14, 1924, Paris, Petit Palais, Édition Paris Musée, 2023, cat. 317 and p.312. Created by Joseph Bernard, this bronze sculpture of a young woman with sensual, graceful nudity, carrying a jug in a position of charming instability, is undoubtedly the most iconic work by this artist, who throughout his career was sensitive to feminine beauty and the search for simplification of form. The original plaster model welcoming visitors to the room dedicated to the 1925 Exhibition in the fine presentation "Le Paris de la Modernité", held in winter 2024 at the Petit Palais in Paris, is a reminder of the intense infatuation with this smooth-bodied, swaying female idol in the years following its creation. The work, described by the painter Jacques-Emile Blanche as "a cry of curiosity, astonishment and admiration", seems to have had a first version with the left arm outstretched in 1905/1907, a period when feminine beauty and movement intensely occupied the sculptor. A second version was completed in 1910. Measuring 184 cm high, it was presented at the Salon d'Automne in 1912, where critics succumbed to its charm and admired its modern, synthetic character: "...Twenty-three beautiful silhouettes, simplified at first by the half-light, soon assert themselves. The initial impression is reminiscent of the extraordinary life of Hindu statuary. Superimposed on them is a memory of the eginotic marbles and sculpted rocks that Bacchus, in his Asian race, scattered as far as the caves of present-day Lolos. It's only on closer study that the detail reveals the artist's personality: A naked young girl returns from the fountain; weak but supple, she carries the pitcher of drawn water; O pleasant prettiness, happy peace, fine beauty!" (La Plume, November 1, 1912, p. 9/20). An example was cast in bronze before 1914, and acquired by the French state in 1917 for the Musée du Luxembourg: the artist thus entered the Pantheon of living artists. The subject was then exhibited in its original size or in its life-size state, in plaster or bronze, at all the major international and retrospective exhibitions where the artist was represented. To name but a few: the Armory Show in New York in 1913, the Galerie des Arts in 1914, the Pavillon du Collectionneur from 1925 to his major retrospective in 1932 at the Musée de l'Orangerie, and, most recently, Le Paris de la Modernité at the Petit Palais in 2024. The sculptor, who, like many artists, experienced material difficulties, benefited from a hard-won reputation and the attention of the great talent scout and founder of a renowned foundry since 1902, Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard. In 1908, this shrewd and visionary man signed a publishing contract with the artist for small-scale pieces.

Estim. 12 000 - 15 000 EUR