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Carl Gemzell, retired Professor Emeritus in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Uppsala University, Sweden, was a warm, creative and humourous philanthropist whose groundbreaking and internationally acclaimed work in the field of reproductive research changed, and indeed created, millions of families around the world. After inventing the first reliable pregnancy test in the 1950s, Professor Gemzell developed 'the Gemzell Method' of treating infertility in women through hormone therapy, which is the basis of all infertility treatments used today including in vitro fertilisation. In 1960 Professor Gemzell delivered healthy quadruplets, the first of many babies conceived using this method. The seeds of Carl Gemzells prestigious collection of modern and contemporary masterpieces were sown in the 1930s, and some of these carefully-collected and long-loved works are now on the market for the first time in over seventy years, sold to benefit Stiftelsen Medevi Brunns Framtid, the charitable foundation to preserve Medevi brunn, Scandinavia's oldest spa, of which Carl Gemzell, like his father and grandfather before him, was a lifelong supporter (please also refer to the Impressionist & Modern Art Works on Paper Sale, London, 5 February 2008, lots 126, 127 & 130). PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF CARL GEMZELL, STOCKHOLM, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE MEDEVI BRUNNS FOUNDATION

Henri Laurens (1885-1954)

Flora

Details

Henri Laurens (1885-1954)
Flora
signed with the monogram, numbered and stamped with the foundry mark 'HL 2/6 C.VALSUANI CIRE PERDUE' (on the back of the base)
bronze with brown patina
Height: 11¾ in. (30 cm.)
Conceived in 1939

Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (no. 076518/2).
Acquired by the present owner in the 1950s or 1960s.

Literature

F. Leibowitz, 'L'Oeuvre exemplaire d'Henri Laurens', in Le Point: Revue artistique et littéraire, vol. XXXIII, July 1946, p. 34 (marble version illustrated).
W. Hofmann, The Sculpture of Henri Laurens, New York, 1970, p. 202 (marble version illustrated).
S. Kuthy, Henri Laurens 1885-1954, Fribourg, 1985, p. 145 (marble version illustrated).

Exhibited

Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Carl Gemzells samling, 1996 (illustrated p. 61).

Special Notice

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