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拍品专文
Olivier Lorquin has confirmed the authenticity of this sculpture.
One of Aristide Maillol's first great free-standing sculptures, Pomona, conceived circa 1910, is unequivocally acknowledged as a seminal work within the sculptor's oeuvre. With its smoothly rounded and pure forms, distillation of volume and evocation of timelessness, Pomona has been described as a 'virtual manifesto' of Maillol's art' (B. Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, New York, 1995, p. 70).
The Roman goddess of fruit trees, Pomona stands with arms gracefully outstretched and in a gentle contrapposto pose. Proffering apples, the shape of which mimic the spherical forms of her breasts, her gesture symbolises the fecundity of both earth and women. Pomona was a figure which Maillol would later revisit, creating variants in a range of formats where the position of the arms is adapted and where she appears, in a number of examples, bedecked in often clinging drapery. Maillol first exhibited a plaster version of Pomona at the Salon d'Automne of 1910. Enthusiastically received by the public, Pomona cemented Mailllol's reputation as a leading sculptor of the day.
Pomona belongs to a group of four life-size figures that Maillol created for Ivan Morozov, who, along with his compatriot Shchukin, was a champion of modernism in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was also one of the sculptor's most important patrons. Commissioned for Morozov's neoclassical music room in his palace at Moscow, this suite of sculptures comprised the first cast of the Pomona, Flora, Printemps and Été. Traditionally known as Les saisons, an allegorical depiction of the four seasons, it has been proposed that Maillol's quartet of sculptures is a meditation on mortal and divine beauty and directly relates to Maurice Denis' great decorative cycle, The Story of Psyche, produced between 1907 and 1909 for the very same room in Morozov's palace (see L. Kramer, Aristide Maillol: Pioneer of Modern Sculpture, New York University, doctoral dissertation, 2000, pp. 155-156).
In a letter addressed to Denis, Maillol stated that he was working on Pomona and Flora simultaneously, remarking: 'I want to do it [Pomona] without being rushed, I am making it completely with nature and want to get as close as I can to the true form' (Maillol, quoted in J.P. Bouillon, 'Maillol et Denis: "fraternité artistique" et moment historique', in U. Berger & J. Zutter, eds., Aristide Maillol, exh. cat., Berlin & Lausanne, 1996, no. 26, p. 141). Maillol explained to Henri Frère, however, that rather than copying his model exactly for Pomona, a young shapely Spanish woman, he 'used her simply as a crutch' (Maillol, quoted in B. Lorquin, iop. cit., 1995, p. 70). In this non-imitative approach, underpinned by a deep affinity with ancient Hellenic and Egyptian sculpture - whose elements he adapted and reinterpreted - Maillol expressed his ideal of harmonious and serene beauty through his own unique sculptural language marked by simplicity and sensuality.
One of Aristide Maillol's first great free-standing sculptures, Pomona, conceived circa 1910, is unequivocally acknowledged as a seminal work within the sculptor's oeuvre. With its smoothly rounded and pure forms, distillation of volume and evocation of timelessness, Pomona has been described as a 'virtual manifesto' of Maillol's art' (B. Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, New York, 1995, p. 70).
The Roman goddess of fruit trees, Pomona stands with arms gracefully outstretched and in a gentle contrapposto pose. Proffering apples, the shape of which mimic the spherical forms of her breasts, her gesture symbolises the fecundity of both earth and women. Pomona was a figure which Maillol would later revisit, creating variants in a range of formats where the position of the arms is adapted and where she appears, in a number of examples, bedecked in often clinging drapery. Maillol first exhibited a plaster version of Pomona at the Salon d'Automne of 1910. Enthusiastically received by the public, Pomona cemented Mailllol's reputation as a leading sculptor of the day.
Pomona belongs to a group of four life-size figures that Maillol created for Ivan Morozov, who, along with his compatriot Shchukin, was a champion of modernism in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was also one of the sculptor's most important patrons. Commissioned for Morozov's neoclassical music room in his palace at Moscow, this suite of sculptures comprised the first cast of the Pomona, Flora, Printemps and Été. Traditionally known as Les saisons, an allegorical depiction of the four seasons, it has been proposed that Maillol's quartet of sculptures is a meditation on mortal and divine beauty and directly relates to Maurice Denis' great decorative cycle, The Story of Psyche, produced between 1907 and 1909 for the very same room in Morozov's palace (see L. Kramer, Aristide Maillol: Pioneer of Modern Sculpture, New York University, doctoral dissertation, 2000, pp. 155-156).
In a letter addressed to Denis, Maillol stated that he was working on Pomona and Flora simultaneously, remarking: 'I want to do it [Pomona] without being rushed, I am making it completely with nature and want to get as close as I can to the true form' (Maillol, quoted in J.P. Bouillon, 'Maillol et Denis: "fraternité artistique" et moment historique', in U. Berger & J. Zutter, eds., Aristide Maillol, exh. cat., Berlin & Lausanne, 1996, no. 26, p. 141). Maillol explained to Henri Frère, however, that rather than copying his model exactly for Pomona, a young shapely Spanish woman, he 'used her simply as a crutch' (Maillol, quoted in B. Lorquin, iop. cit., 1995, p. 70). In this non-imitative approach, underpinned by a deep affinity with ancient Hellenic and Egyptian sculpture - whose elements he adapted and reinterpreted - Maillol expressed his ideal of harmonious and serene beauty through his own unique sculptural language marked by simplicity and sensuality.