Jean Osouf (1898-1996) - Lot 64

Jean Osouf (1898-1996) Coralie, half-figure, 1935-1945 Bronze proof Lost-wax casting 32 x 12 x 9 cm Provenance : Sweden, private collection Coralie posed for Jean Osouf between about 1935 and 1945. During this ten-year period, Osouf created a large number of sculptures in which he interpreted the attitudes and expressions of his model: figures of Naïade, Baigneuse, Jeune fille, Buste de Coralie dit Petite reine, Buste de Coralie couronnée, Masque de Coralie dit Épiphanie... The Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Alger holds a Baigneuse, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Belfort two Buste de Coralie and the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris a Buste de Coralie couronnée. Cut above the knees, this figure of Coralie is to be compared with the complete figure of Coralie dated 1935, a bronze of which is kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims also holds a Baigneuse, a study of Coralie, where the cutout at thigh level creates an even shorter torso. Each of the three works also features subtle variations, such as the hairstyle. Related literature: : - Robert Couturier, Jean Osouf, Club Français de la Médaille, n°59/60, 2nd quarter 1978, p.26-27. - Jean Perrin, Jean Osouf, sculpteur, Société d'Histoire et d'Art de la Brie et du pays de Meaux, Meaux 1981. - Jean Osouf, Paris, Martel-Greiner Gallery, 2000. - Anne Pingeot, Bonnard sculpteur. Catalog raisonné, Musée d'Orsay, Éd. Nicolas Chaudun, 2006 (p. 56 to 62).