Bust
See also : Sculpture Sculpture by painters Italy Italian sculpture Modigliani Giacometti Picasso 1907-1931 Picasso 1940-1960 Eastern Europe
Chronology : 1910-1919 1911 1930-1939 1932 1955 1965
Chronology : 1910-1919 1911 1930-1939 1932 1955 1965
1910 (<1913) The Ovoid Muse
2017 SOLD for $ 57M including premium
The art of Brancusi is too fundamental, too seminal and too personal to be associated with any artistic movement. Very gifted in his hands since his childhood, this son of poor Carpathian peasants arrived in Paris on foot in 1904. The period is exceptional : the artistic Parisian bubbling opens the way to his creativity.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells one of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, lot 32 A estimated $ 20M. This specimen has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells one of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, lot 32 A estimated $ 20M. This specimen has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1910-1939 Tête de Femme (Fernande) by Picasso
2022 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
During his summer of 1909 at Horta, Picasso made eight paintings and several drawings of his accompanying muse Fernande. In his search for a new artistic language that would supersede the reality by the emotion, he bored the 28 year old model.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
1911-1912 Woman and Caryatid
2014 SOLD for $ 71M including premium
Amedeo Modigliani is a young Italian immigrant who is learning the tendencies of modern art in Paris at the Bateau-Lavoir. From his meeting with Brancusi he discovers the sculpture in direct carving, perfectly suited to his skills : Modi operates quickly and without rework.
Brancusi is one of the greatest innovators of sculpture. Reacting against the realistic details of clay and bronze, he is the first to seek beauty through basic and simplified forms that will lead him up to abstraction.
Brancusi and Modigliani find inspiration for their new styles in the antique and African arts. In 1910, Modi draws women topped with a tablette in reference to the Caryatids of the Erechtheion. His series of busts made in 1911 and 1912 will be his temple of art.
Modi is not yet famous. He uses limestone blocks taken from construction sites and carries them in a wheelbarrow to his modest studio in Montparnasse. His heads of women create around him a crowd of pure and stylized faces with the intense force of a tribal ceremony.
On June 14, 2010, a caryatid bust 64 cm high including the cubic base was sold for € 43M including premium by Christie's.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells a bust, 73 cm high including the base, lot 8. The press release of October 3 is announcing an estimate in excess of $ 45M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
Brancusi is one of the greatest innovators of sculpture. Reacting against the realistic details of clay and bronze, he is the first to seek beauty through basic and simplified forms that will lead him up to abstraction.
Brancusi and Modigliani find inspiration for their new styles in the antique and African arts. In 1910, Modi draws women topped with a tablette in reference to the Caryatids of the Erechtheion. His series of busts made in 1911 and 1912 will be his temple of art.
Modi is not yet famous. He uses limestone blocks taken from construction sites and carries them in a wheelbarrow to his modest studio in Montparnasse. His heads of women create around him a crowd of pure and stylized faces with the intense force of a tribal ceremony.
On June 14, 2010, a caryatid bust 64 cm high including the cubic base was sold for € 43M including premium by Christie's.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells a bust, 73 cm high including the base, lot 8. The press release of October 3 is announcing an estimate in excess of $ 45M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
1911 Modigliani sculpted the Timeless Woman
2010 SOLD 43 M€ including premium
Amedeo Modigliani made a dazzling pass in the history of sculpture.
His female heads are a synthesis of all ages and all civilizations. They are simple as the Cycladic idols, noble as queens of Egypt, Mannerist as a Botticelli, mysterious as African masks, serene as deities, geometric like the art of his friend Brancusi. They are designed to be viewed as a group, such as the Cariatides of a Greek temple.
Made in a very limited quantity, they were dispersed. Only the artist in his small studio in Montparnasse, or some friends at an exhibition in 1911 or 1912, could breathe the mystical atmosphere of the whole.
One of these statues, made of Parisian limestone, 64 cm high including the cubic base, is on sale at Christie's in Paris on June 14. It is obvious that this lot, estimated € 4 million, is exceptional. It is shared in an article in French by Le Figaro.
Modigliani carved the stone in direct cut. In 1914, he had to give up his vocation as a sculptor for reasons of health and money. His brush was as clever as his chisel to express the purity of the curves, and he became the best portrait painter of his time.
POST SALE COMMENT
The information provided by Christie's did not leave any possibility for doubt: this sculpture is a masterpiece. Result: € 43 million including premium.
His female heads are a synthesis of all ages and all civilizations. They are simple as the Cycladic idols, noble as queens of Egypt, Mannerist as a Botticelli, mysterious as African masks, serene as deities, geometric like the art of his friend Brancusi. They are designed to be viewed as a group, such as the Cariatides of a Greek temple.
Made in a very limited quantity, they were dispersed. Only the artist in his small studio in Montparnasse, or some friends at an exhibition in 1911 or 1912, could breathe the mystical atmosphere of the whole.
One of these statues, made of Parisian limestone, 64 cm high including the cubic base, is on sale at Christie's in Paris on June 14. It is obvious that this lot, estimated € 4 million, is exceptional. It is shared in an article in French by Le Figaro.
Modigliani carved the stone in direct cut. In 1914, he had to give up his vocation as a sculptor for reasons of health and money. His brush was as clever as his chisel to express the purity of the curves, and he became the best portrait painter of his time.
POST SALE COMMENT
The information provided by Christie's did not leave any possibility for doubt: this sculpture is a masterpiece. Result: € 43 million including premium.
1911-1912 The Unfinished Temple
2019 SOLD for $ 34M including premium
Modigliani is easily convinced by Brancusi that the direct stone carving may bring an utmost purity to art. Opposed to Rodin's realism, the two artists are attempting a conceptual art that their detractors include in the Cubism still highly disputed at that time.
From 1909 to 1914 Modigliani is obsessed with a unique project : to build a temple dedicated to feminine beauty. To provide a roof for his monument, he tirelessly draws figures of caryatids which he calls his columns of tenderness.
Around 1911 he finally exerts his indisputable skills for sculpture in a series of limestone and sandstone women's heads. These elongated heads with a long neck on a cubic base are similar to each other but details of the faces are different. The varied heights show that the overall design of the temple is far from fixed.
All art critics have searched for models and styles that have inspired the timeless beauty of Modigliani's women's heads. They are indeed a synthesis of aesthetic conceptions of all times and all cultures.
Modigliani carved about 25 heads. In 1911 five of them are recognizable by photography in his solo exhibition organized with the help of Brancusi in the vast workshop of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. In 1912 the Salon d'Automne aligns seven heads in the Cubist Hall.
In 1913 Modigliani feels that his project of temple is ready. He chooses to use marble and visits Carrara. He carved only one caryatid. His fragile health will not allow him to do more. He abandons his great project and becomes a portrait painter again.
A Tête 64 cm high exhibited by Souza-Cardoso and at the Salon d'Automne was sold for € 43M including premium by Christie's on June 14, 2010. A 73 cm high Tête from the Salon d'Automne was sold for $ 71M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014. In limestone as the two examples above, a 51 cm high Tête carved around 1911-1912 with no early exhibition history is estimated $ 30M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 31A.
From 1909 to 1914 Modigliani is obsessed with a unique project : to build a temple dedicated to feminine beauty. To provide a roof for his monument, he tirelessly draws figures of caryatids which he calls his columns of tenderness.
Around 1911 he finally exerts his indisputable skills for sculpture in a series of limestone and sandstone women's heads. These elongated heads with a long neck on a cubic base are similar to each other but details of the faces are different. The varied heights show that the overall design of the temple is far from fixed.
All art critics have searched for models and styles that have inspired the timeless beauty of Modigliani's women's heads. They are indeed a synthesis of aesthetic conceptions of all times and all cultures.
Modigliani carved about 25 heads. In 1911 five of them are recognizable by photography in his solo exhibition organized with the help of Brancusi in the vast workshop of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. In 1912 the Salon d'Automne aligns seven heads in the Cubist Hall.
In 1913 Modigliani feels that his project of temple is ready. He chooses to use marble and visits Carrara. He carved only one caryatid. His fragile health will not allow him to do more. He abandons his great project and becomes a portrait painter again.
A Tête 64 cm high exhibited by Souza-Cardoso and at the Salon d'Automne was sold for € 43M including premium by Christie's on June 14, 2010. A 73 cm high Tête from the Salon d'Automne was sold for $ 71M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014. In limestone as the two examples above, a 51 cm high Tête carved around 1911-1912 with no early exhibition history is estimated $ 30M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 31A.
On May 13 we will offer Amedeo Modigliani’s limestone sculpture, 'Tête', circa 1911-1912, in our New York Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art.
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) April 18, 2019
Find out more: https://t.co/gMtuCZPqy8 pic.twitter.com/Tia9YIKeZC
1932 The Faceless Head
2018 SOLD for $ 71M including premium
Being a muse for Brancusi was not a difficult task. He had met Margit Pogany very briefly in 1910 but liked the shape of her head which inspired him until the mid-1920s.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It will be sold at lot 19 A by Christie's in New York on May 15. Please watch the videoshared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It will be sold at lot 19 A by Christie's in New York on May 15. Please watch the videoshared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
1955 Grande tête mince by Giacometti
2010 SOLD 53 M$ including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
The head and the bust, portrait or imaginary, with or without a base, is a major theme in the sculpture of Alberto Giacometti. This theme is interrupted when the artist reconstructs his universe with his existentialist triad in 1947, but returns beside the standing woman with La Cage in 1949. Inspired by his threadlike characters, he begins to reduce the width of the heads.
In 1954 Alberto refocuses on the portraits of his family and friends his sculpted and painted art. His brother Diego complacently becomes his preferred model. At the same time Alberto rediscovers his fascination for the famous bust of Nefertiti.
The graphic art of ancient Egypt used a flat profile figuration by which the two sides of the head cannot be seen simultaneously. A bust of Diego on a base, 38 cm high overall, is subtitled Amenophis. The head is a blade. On each side Alberto kneaded an Egyptian portrait of his brother. A bronze copy was sold by Sotheby's for £ 3.4M including premium on June 24, 2009.
At 65 cm high overall, Grande Tête Mince, also known as Grande Tête de Diego, will remain until 1960 the largest bust created by Alberto. Like Amenophis, it was designed in 1954 and edited in bronze by Susse in 1955.
Grande Tête Mince is the most daring of all compositions by Alberto. Since the two sides of the face are not seen simultaneously, they can be dissimilar. Indeed the portrait of Nefertiti has no pupil in the left eye, probably from its conception. Alberto's face is more wrinkled than Diego's. The left side is undoubtedly a portrait of Diego. The right side, kneaded in clay with deeper relief, could be a self-portrait of Alberto.
The bronze 3/6 of the Grande Tête Mince, with a dark brown patina, was sold for $ 53M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2010, lot 13. The bronze 6/6 was sold for $ 50M including premium by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013.
In 1954 Alberto refocuses on the portraits of his family and friends his sculpted and painted art. His brother Diego complacently becomes his preferred model. At the same time Alberto rediscovers his fascination for the famous bust of Nefertiti.
The graphic art of ancient Egypt used a flat profile figuration by which the two sides of the head cannot be seen simultaneously. A bust of Diego on a base, 38 cm high overall, is subtitled Amenophis. The head is a blade. On each side Alberto kneaded an Egyptian portrait of his brother. A bronze copy was sold by Sotheby's for £ 3.4M including premium on June 24, 2009.
At 65 cm high overall, Grande Tête Mince, also known as Grande Tête de Diego, will remain until 1960 the largest bust created by Alberto. Like Amenophis, it was designed in 1954 and edited in bronze by Susse in 1955.
Grande Tête Mince is the most daring of all compositions by Alberto. Since the two sides of the face are not seen simultaneously, they can be dissimilar. Indeed the portrait of Nefertiti has no pupil in the left eye, probably from its conception. Alberto's face is more wrinkled than Diego's. The left side is undoubtedly a portrait of Diego. The right side, kneaded in clay with deeper relief, could be a self-portrait of Alberto.
The bronze 3/6 of the Grande Tête Mince, with a dark brown patina, was sold for $ 53M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2010, lot 13. The bronze 6/6 was sold for $ 50M including premium by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013.
1955 Alberto and his Double
2013 SOLD 50 M$ including premium
Already famous for his threadlike sculpture of bodies, Alberto Giacometti wants to push further his research of total art. In 1954, in his kneaded statues, he breaks with the tradition of classical sculpture which had been a way to offer to the viewer a realistic three-dimensional vision of the selected theme.
He used to say that he did not make a difference between sculpture and drawing. He then takes as model only his family and close friends, especially his brother Diego younger than himself by only thirteen months. People outside his narrow circle would probably hardly support to be so scrutinized by this artist in search of a new ideal.
The tall thin head 65 cm high is the masterpiece from this series which was cast in bronze in 1955 by Susse. The head is reduced to a blade but the view of each profile is as realistic as a drawing, with the frank gaze and the mouth opened for speaking.
This step forward revolutionized the modern sculpture, but Alberto's view of art history went much farther up to the flat figures in ancient Egyptian art, as it is evidenced by another bust of Diego subtitled Amenophis in the same series.
The two brothers had a strong physical resemblance and there is no doubt that Alberto sought also to reach the truth about himself. He voluntarily maintained this ambiguity in an exhibition in 1962 when he chose to name this sculpture the Grande tête mince rather than Grande tête de Diego.
The bronze 3/6 of the Grande tête mince was sold for $ 53M including premium at Christie's on May 4, 2010. The serial number 6/6 is estimated $ 35M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 6. Here is the link to the catalog.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, $ 50M including premium, is consistent with the price recorded on another copy in 2010.
Grande Tête Mince is a masterpiece of sculpture of the twentieth century. The assumption that one side is a portrait of Diego and the other side a self-portrait is fascinating and shows that this work will never deliver the whole of its mystery, the real mystery of mankind that is behind all Alberto's post-war art.
He used to say that he did not make a difference between sculpture and drawing. He then takes as model only his family and close friends, especially his brother Diego younger than himself by only thirteen months. People outside his narrow circle would probably hardly support to be so scrutinized by this artist in search of a new ideal.
The tall thin head 65 cm high is the masterpiece from this series which was cast in bronze in 1955 by Susse. The head is reduced to a blade but the view of each profile is as realistic as a drawing, with the frank gaze and the mouth opened for speaking.
This step forward revolutionized the modern sculpture, but Alberto's view of art history went much farther up to the flat figures in ancient Egyptian art, as it is evidenced by another bust of Diego subtitled Amenophis in the same series.
The two brothers had a strong physical resemblance and there is no doubt that Alberto sought also to reach the truth about himself. He voluntarily maintained this ambiguity in an exhibition in 1962 when he chose to name this sculpture the Grande tête mince rather than Grande tête de Diego.
The bronze 3/6 of the Grande tête mince was sold for $ 53M including premium at Christie's on May 4, 2010. The serial number 6/6 is estimated $ 35M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 6. Here is the link to the catalog.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, $ 50M including premium, is consistent with the price recorded on another copy in 2010.
Grande Tête Mince is a masterpiece of sculpture of the twentieth century. The assumption that one side is a portrait of Diego and the other side a self-portrait is fascinating and shows that this work will never deliver the whole of its mystery, the real mystery of mankind that is behind all Alberto's post-war art.
1959 Tête Sculptée de Dora Maar
2007 SOLD for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
At the beginning of 1941 Picasso relocates his series of busts of Marie-Thérèse, made ten years earlier at Boisgeloup, to his studio on rue des Grands Augustins. In the same year, he makes a plaster head of Dora Maar, 80 cm high. This domineering work, larger than life, is in an idealized style which is in total opposition to the dramatic or allegorical portraits of Dora that he was painting at the same period.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 20M, lot 22.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 20M, lot 22.
1965 Le Nez by Giacometti
2021 SOLD for $ 78M by Sotheby's
In his post war nightmares and hallucinations, Alberto Giacometti lost the discrimination between the living and the dead. He is a sculptor : in 1947 he manages to immobilize this ambiguity in plasters. Fragmenting the human organs, he conceives Le Nez, La Main and Tête sur tige. Questioning the beyond in the same year, he creates his existentialist trinity led by L'Homme au doigt.
Le Nez is a full head hanging to a rope within a cage, so that it cannot be perceived as a mere bust. The threadlike posts and bars of the cage are similar as those conceived by him is the 1930s for staging Surrealist figures. Such an existentialist expression of human forms in a cage had a decisive influence on Francis Bacon.
The narwhal tooth shaped straight nose extends far beyond the volume of the cage, providing a fake liberty to the encaged figure. The mouth is wide open for a scream. The very first plaster also had a red painted tongue and a spiral red clown wrap around the nose.
There is no doubt that the fragile balance of Le Nez was very difficult to transfer to bronze. That was done in 1965 by Susse in an edition of 6 plus 2 additional proofs. The head is cast from a replica of the 1949 plaster while the cage had been narrowed in the previous year for a more protruding effect of the nose. The cage is 81 cm high. Small roundels under the four posts assure a stability to that fragile piece.
The number 6/6 was sold for $ 78M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 14.
Le Nez is a full head hanging to a rope within a cage, so that it cannot be perceived as a mere bust. The threadlike posts and bars of the cage are similar as those conceived by him is the 1930s for staging Surrealist figures. Such an existentialist expression of human forms in a cage had a decisive influence on Francis Bacon.
The narwhal tooth shaped straight nose extends far beyond the volume of the cage, providing a fake liberty to the encaged figure. The mouth is wide open for a scream. The very first plaster also had a red painted tongue and a spiral red clown wrap around the nose.
There is no doubt that the fragile balance of Le Nez was very difficult to transfer to bronze. That was done in 1965 by Susse in an edition of 6 plus 2 additional proofs. The head is cast from a replica of the 1949 plaster while the cage had been narrowed in the previous year for a more protruding effect of the nose. The cage is 81 cm high. Small roundels under the four posts assure a stability to that fragile piece.
The number 6/6 was sold for $ 78M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 14.
