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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. MICHAEL HALL, NEW YORK
Lot 26
Elie Nadelman(1882-1946)Standing Female Nude on Modeled Base 25 1/4in high
22 May 2019, 16:00 EDT
New YorkUS$200,000 - US$300,000
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Elie Nadelman (1882-1946)
Standing Female Nude on Modeled Base
inscribed 'Eli Nadelman' (on the base)
bronze with dark green patina
25 1/4in high
Modeled circa 1912.
inscribed 'Eli Nadelman' (on the base)
bronze with dark green patina
25 1/4in high
Modeled circa 1912.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
Estate of the above.
with Lincoln Kirstein.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, by 1973.
Literature
L. Kirstein, Elie Nadelman, New York, 1973, p. 295, no. 80.
B. Haskell, Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life, New York, 2003, p. 52, fig. 49, another example illustrated.
While living in Paris from 1904 through 1914, Elie Nadelman became acquainted with many prominent figures of the modern art movement including Pablo Picasso, Constantine Brancusi, and Leo and Gertrude Stein. Standing Female Nude on Modeled Base was composed during this influential and inspired early period of the artist's celebrated career as a sculptor. The present work is one of three known casts of this model.
Nadelman's hallmark style focused on representing the figure through linear curves and exaggerated forms, without superfluous details or ornamentation. The artist once described, "I employ no other line than the curve, which possesses freshness and force..." (as quoted in L. Kirstein, Elie Nadelman, New York, 1973, p. 184) In the present work, Nadelman composed an elegant and clearly defined figure, where he emphasized the weight of form and exaggerated musculature. Similarities in the exaggerations and curves of Nadelman's early nudes, exhibit an influence of the Mannerist style of the Late Renaissance while the classic free-standing pose is also reminiscent of ancient Greek bronzes. The figure lifts her open hands, possibly a subtle suggestion of the orans pose, a classical position referring to prayer. She takes a step forward, her toes extending over the base, as the twist of her body and extension of limbs all are constructed through harmoniously curved forms.
Lincoln Kirstein wrote of the artist's early work and the dichotomy of blending classical and modern aesthetics, "Nadelman did not produce at the behest of Helena Rubenstein's beauty-shops, but his taste coincided with a luxurious antiquity already familiar and flattering to customers. He utilized the vast gap between ancient and modern ideals in form, craft, and manners... He reveled in this ambiguous area; his figures delight in discrepancy." (ibid, pp. 182-83) The simplified and uniquely stylized representation of the human figure exhibited in the present work remained a constant throughout Nadelman's oeuvre.