Marcel Gimond (1894-1961) - Lot 162

Marcel Gimond (1894-1961) Seated woman styling her hair, 1926 Original plaster 70 x 26 x 36.6 cm Provenance : Robert Lotiron Collection French private collection (descended from Robert Lotiron) This plaster has been the subject of a drawing agreement between the rightful owners and the owner. This agreement will be given to the buyer after the sale. It stipulates that the owner undertakes to guarantee access to the work to the rightful owners, enabling them to cast two bronze copies of the model, bearing numbers 2 and 3, with numbers 4 to 6 remaining the property of the plaster's owner. To enable the above-mentioned prints to be made, the purchaser must make arrangements with the rights holders. Bibliography : 1930 FIERENS: Paul Fierens, Marcel Gimond, Collection Sculpteurs Nouveaux, Paris, 1930, repr. p.35 (stone copy). 1932 ARTICLE: Roger Brielle, "Marcel Gimond", L'Art et les artistes, n°123, January 1932, repr. p. 124 (stone copy). 1969 GIMOND: Marcel Gimond, Comment je comprends la sculpture, Arted, Éditions d'Art, Paris, 1969. 1994 EXHIBITION: Marcel Gimond 1894-1961, dir. Laurence Sallenave, Bernadette Imbert, (cat.exp., Aubenas, Château d'Aubenas, August 5 - September 30, 1994), Aubenas, Mairie d'Aubenas, 1994, repr. (bronze copy). 2003 DEA: Hélène Labbé-Bazantay, Marcel Antoine Gimond (1894-1961), DEA Histoire de l'art, under the direction of Thierry Dufrêne, Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble, September 2003, sculpture catalog, repr. p. 18 (stone and bronze copy). 2008 EXHIBITION: Dessins de sculpteurs II, dir. Galerie Malaquais, (cat. exp., Paris, Galerie Malaquais, March 28 - April 18, 2008), Paris, Galerie Malaquais, 2008, repr. p. 45 (drawing). Other examples: Marcel Gimond, Nu à la coiffure, 1926, bronze, 72 cm, private collection. Marcel Gimond, Nu assis, 1927, stone, 73 x 26 x 36 cm, Paris, Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou, AM 808 S. A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 1917, Marcel Gimond claimed to belong to the independent sculpture movement. A sculptor of form, he enjoyed depicting female nudes and creating portraits. The original plaster Femme assise se coiffant, dated 1926, is a perfect example of the artist's early research into the female nude. The same year, a bronze was made from this model, known as Nu à la coiffure, and now in private hands. The Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris holds a stone model dated 1927, entitled Nu assis. Femme assise se coiffant comes from the collection of French painter and engraver Robert Lotiron (1886-1966). Conceived as a modern Venus emerging from the waters, Marcel Gimond's work depicts a woman in the intimacy of her toilette. Seated on a two-step base, her bent left leg resting firmly flat on the first step and the tip of her right foot resting directly on the ground, the young woman gathers her twisted hair in a graceful movement, her right arm raised above her head, the left brought back against her and resting on her leg. This movement of the arms frames a face imbued with serenity, thanks to its relaxed features and "antique" eyes, with no indication of the pupil, allowing the gaze to project into the distance. Nothing seems able to disturb the tranquility of this meditative meditative young woman. The sculptor's aim is not so much individualization as the attainment of a timeless ideal, conferring an eternal dimension on his figure. The simple volumes and harmonious curves are reminiscent of the female nudes by Aristide Maillol, with whom Marcel Gimond worked in Marly-le-Roi between 1917 and 1918. The influence of Auguste Renoir is also perceptible in this sculpture. The master, who asked the young artist to create his bust in the winter of 1919 and whose studio on boulevard Rochechouart was also made available to him, produced a number of drawings and paintings of nude bathers in landscapes, such as Femme nue dans un paysage (1883) and La Baigneuse assise s'essuyant une jambe (1914), which Marcel Gimond may well have observed. Femme assise se coiffant is part of a series of female nudes, sometimes reclining, sometimes seated or standing, that the artist produced in the early years of his career, between 1920 and 1930. The motif of the drape, positioned under the figure's body, is recurrent, and is expressed in a light, supple pleating. This sculpture can be related to a drawing executed in Indian ink in 1925 and presented under the title Modèle assis. Finally, in the same year, 1926, Marcel Gimond executed