Gustave Pimienta (1888-1982) - Lot 170

Gustave Pimienta (1888-1982) Portrait of a man Red-brown patina bronze bust Signed and dated "GUSTAVE PIMIENTA / 1928". Numbered "2e". Bears the founder's stamp "Alexis. RUDIER. Fondeur. PARIS". H. 40 cm Gustave Pimienta showed exceptional talent for sculpture from an early age. Winner of the Petit Palais prize for child painters and sculptors, he trained at the Académie Julian and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Described as a child prodigy, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes français at the age of fifteen, and became a juror for the Salon d'Automne at seventeen. Amputated of four fingers on his left hand during the First World War, Pimienta resumed his work as a sculptor, traveling to Italy with Aristide Maillol. He made portraiture his specialty, and his busts, captured in the moment, are highly expressive. In 1939, he met the Marquise de Narros, who became his muse and patron.