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Lot Essay
Considered to be one of Laurens' most accomplished works of this period, Le grand adieu is a powerful study of the human life cycle in feminine form, a subject to which Laurens dedicated a good part of his career. Following his Cubist period, Laurens returned in 1919 to carving sculpture in the round and began to draw upon and rethink the French modernist traditions of the female nude, which Giacometti described as "all the while, evoking a re-invented human figure" (Alberto Giacometti, "Henri Laurens: un sculpteur vu par un sculpteur" in Labyrinthe, Geneva, 1945, p. 3).
Le grand adieu, a womanly yet embryonic figure sits with her head and limbs turned inward, wrapped around loss; the turning of her limbs suggests an attempt to shield the cradled child, or to bid a last farewell, the adieu of the title. "The Farewell thus comes to mean encompassing life once again as a whole and returning to its origins." (D.H. Kahnweiler and W. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 28). Laurens visualized her form as if she were a large fruit. He observed in 1952, "When forms arrive at their maturity, their fullness, light will fall on them of its own accord, just as it falls on a ripe piece of fruit in a 'garden'" (quoted in Henri Laurens, 1885-1954, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1971, p. 10).
Laurens conceived Le grand adieu during the German occupation of France. After attacks by the French collaborationist press, the artist was unable to exhibit, and until the liberation he led a quiet life, making sculpture that was at once a reflection of the tragedy and crisis of World War II as well as his own return to the world of the subconscious and sensual. As in other works from this period, such as Groupe de Sirens, 1938, La Dormeuse, 1943, and Le Matin, 1944, which were all cast in postures of repose, sinking, and falling that referred to the collapse of France, Le grand adieu rebels against oppression as metaphors of the unbowed spirit. Monumental in conception, the biomorphic forms of this sculpture are at once architectonic and sensual: "The body is not only a paradigm of sitting and of self-sufficient massiveness; it is an image of the organic profusion of life, in which forces of growth and preservation balance each other." (D.H. Kahnweiler and W. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 27).
This compelling work is an outstanding example of Lauren's figural practice of the 1930s and 1940s, an authoritative presentation of metaphor and form. Werner Hofmann has written, "Nowhere in the history of sculpture is there a body whose weight rests on the earth more fully, heavily and pregnantly" (ibid.). The curvilinear lines of Le grand adieu compose an organic and ripe vision, a symbiotic whole reflecting fertility, metamorphosis, and growth, while at the same time, it conveys a profound feeling of sorrow in the ultimate fate of all living things. "It is an image of the organic profusion of life... of this vitality is directed toward fulfillment, an equalized form representing summation" (ibid.).
Laurens also produced versions of L'adieu in marble and terracotta.
Le grand adieu, a womanly yet embryonic figure sits with her head and limbs turned inward, wrapped around loss; the turning of her limbs suggests an attempt to shield the cradled child, or to bid a last farewell, the adieu of the title. "The Farewell thus comes to mean encompassing life once again as a whole and returning to its origins." (D.H. Kahnweiler and W. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 28). Laurens visualized her form as if she were a large fruit. He observed in 1952, "When forms arrive at their maturity, their fullness, light will fall on them of its own accord, just as it falls on a ripe piece of fruit in a 'garden'" (quoted in Henri Laurens, 1885-1954, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1971, p. 10).
Laurens conceived Le grand adieu during the German occupation of France. After attacks by the French collaborationist press, the artist was unable to exhibit, and until the liberation he led a quiet life, making sculpture that was at once a reflection of the tragedy and crisis of World War II as well as his own return to the world of the subconscious and sensual. As in other works from this period, such as Groupe de Sirens, 1938, La Dormeuse, 1943, and Le Matin, 1944, which were all cast in postures of repose, sinking, and falling that referred to the collapse of France, Le grand adieu rebels against oppression as metaphors of the unbowed spirit. Monumental in conception, the biomorphic forms of this sculpture are at once architectonic and sensual: "The body is not only a paradigm of sitting and of self-sufficient massiveness; it is an image of the organic profusion of life, in which forces of growth and preservation balance each other." (D.H. Kahnweiler and W. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 27).
This compelling work is an outstanding example of Lauren's figural practice of the 1930s and 1940s, an authoritative presentation of metaphor and form. Werner Hofmann has written, "Nowhere in the history of sculpture is there a body whose weight rests on the earth more fully, heavily and pregnantly" (ibid.). The curvilinear lines of Le grand adieu compose an organic and ripe vision, a symbiotic whole reflecting fertility, metamorphosis, and growth, while at the same time, it conveys a profound feeling of sorrow in the ultimate fate of all living things. "It is an image of the organic profusion of life... of this vitality is directed toward fulfillment, an equalized form representing summation" (ibid.).
Laurens also produced versions of L'adieu in marble and terracotta.