René LETOURNEUR (1898-1990) - Lot 144

René LETOURNEUR (1898-1990) Little Mermaid 1975 Bronze with brown patina, unnumbered Codina lost-wax casting, late 1970s (stamp on left) Unsigned 13 x 12 x 9 cm Marble base: 2 x 10 x 13.5 cm René Letourneur's Petite Sirène appears to have escaped from a Baroque fountain in Rome: in a posture characteristic of fountain figures, fully arched, she blows into a shell. The bronze proof of the Petite Sirène presented here is the only one cast during the artist's lifetime. The following year, for his Grande Sirène (Great Mermaid), executed in direct carving from a monumental block of marble, the sculptor adopted a completely different approach: he broke with tradition and adopted a resolutely modern composition, in which the mermaid appears with her legs in the air. Étude pour la Grande Sirène (cat. no. 143), a preparatory drawing for the carving of the marble, reveals this new composition. Bibliography : 2009 EXHIBITION, p. 208-209, repr. (marble).