La grande nuit

The flowing lines and organically rounded forms of La grande nuit perfectly encapsulate Henri Laurens' lyrical approach to the subject of the reclining female figure. Laurens conceived the present work in 1950 when, as Michael Harrison has observed, his 'career had reached that pitch of ripeness which he was seeking in each sculpture' (M. Harrison, 'Introduction', Henri Laurens: bronzes, collages, drawings, prints, exh. cat., London, 1980). The year after he executed La grande nuit, Laurens made a series of statements to Yvon Taillandier that provides insight into his working methods at this time: 'When I begin a sculpture, I only have a vague idea of what I want to do. For instance, I have the idea of a woman or of something related to the sea. Before being a representation of whatever it may be, my sculpture is a plastic act and, more precisely, a series of plastic events, products of my imagination, answers to the demands of the making. I provide a title right at the end' (Y. Taillandier, 'Une déclaration de Henri Laurens', in Amis de l'Art, 26 June 1951, D. Sylvester, trans; reprinted in Henri Laurens: 1895-1954, exh. cat., London, 1971).
La grande nuit was cast in an edition of seven. Other casts of this work are housed in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery in Prague, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover and the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern.