Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) - Lot 163

Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) Portrait of Géricault, 1933 Black patina bronze proof Lost-wax casting Mario Busato Founder's stamp on right neck base Seal with thumbprint Signed on the back: "JL". Trace of a rectangular label on the left neck 18 x 11.5 x 14 cm Provenance : Private American collection Bibliography : - Jacques Lipchitz, 157 Small Bronze Sketches 1914-1962, New York, Otto Gerson Gallery, April 16 - May 11, 1963. - H. Harvard Arnason, Jacques Lipchitz: Sketches in bronze, London, Pall Mall Press, 1969, repr. N°104 - Jacques Lipchitz, bronzes sketches, the Reuven Lipchitz collection donated in memory of Abram and Rachel Lipchitz, Jerusalem, Israel Museum, 1971, n°101 repr. - Jacques Lipchitz, H. Harvard Arnason, My Life in Sculpture, Coll. The Documents of the 20th Century Art, Thames and Hudson, 1972, repr. P.130 - Abraham-Marie Hammacher, Jacques Lipchitz, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. publishers, 1975, repr. no. 108 - Peter Bermingham, Jacques Lipchitz, Sketches and Models in the Collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona, 1982, repr. N°43 - Alan G. Wilkinson, The sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz, A catalog raisonné, volume I, The Paris Years 1910-1940, Thames and Hudson, 1996, p.103, n°312, repr. - Jacques Lipchitz, collection du center Pompidou, MNAM, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, ville de Nancy et center Pompidou, 2004, repr. p.60, n°47 - Lipchitz, les années françaises 1910-1940, exhibition catalog, Musée des Années 30, Boulogne-Billancourt, Somogy éditions d'art, 2005. - Kosme de Barañano, Jacques Lipchitz, Los yesos, Catalogo Razonado (The Plasters, A Catalogue Raisonné), 1911-1973, 2009, no. 216 repr. "In 1932 and 1933 I returned to portraiture, the most interesting of which for me was the portrait of Géricault. I've always been a great admirer of this painter, a genius who died young, and I own some of his paintings" Jacques Lipchitz (Arnason, 1972). In 1933, when he created Géricault's Portrait, Jacques Lipchitz enjoyed great success, received commissions and navigated a buoyant and exciting context. The artist returned to the sources of his inspiration by creating this tribute to an artist he admired. Moreover, heir to a classical French training, he considers portraiture a useful and indispensable exercise in the evolution of his artistic work: "All my life, with a few interruptions, I've done portraits. I really enjoy doing them" (Arnason, 1972). The artist worked, as he testifies, from a death mask of which he had acquired a print, and from existing portraits of the painter. Working from a death mask had an antecedent in his career: in 1920, paying homage to another artist, Amedeo Modigliani - who was, however, his friend - he created the Masque mortuaire de Modigliani from memory, thanks to a partial plaster cast brought to him by the painter Moïse Kisling and the Swiss astrologer Conrad Moricand. The tension created by the fine yet rough construction makes this portrait particularly lively and expressive. As for the half-nature scale, it lends it a particularly intimate character. This agitated style reflects the romantic temperament of the artist portrayed. There are four maquettes of Géricault's Portrait, followed by the final model. All are dated 1933. As for model no. 2, which shows the artist wearing a beret on the back of his head, a plaster cast is preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy. As with the other models, 7 were produced in bronze. The first three were cast by Busato in Paris in 1952. The example presented here is the 2/7 cast by Busato, one of only 3 cast by the artist during his lifetime. As far as we know, n°1/7 has not been located; n°3/7 is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In 1952, he was featured in the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where Lipchitz exhibited 22 works. During this period, the artist was living in the United States, where he was also gaining recognition: many of his works were acquired by institutions (today, American museums hold over 230 of his works) and private collectors. Our copy comes from one of these collections.