Henri Laurens (1885-1954)

Monsieur Quentin Laurens, the holder of the Droit Moral, has kindly confirmed that this work is registered in his archives.

In the mid-1920s, Laurens began to turn away from the planar and angular style of his early cubist sculpture. He took a more biomorphic and organic approach to form, tinged with the prevailing classicism of that era, which infused his work with softness and sensuality. Laurens became interested in the form of the figure as a whole, rather than as a sum of parts, and he sought to impart to his figures a more naturally rhythmic dynamism. The artist imposed upon himself a formal regimen, which required him to "[open] up the volume and [create] a flowing interpenetration of torso and limbs," (quoted in W. Hofmann, op. cit, p. 42).

Petite cariatide is a beautiful example of this renewed classicism, its rounded volumes symbolizing spiritual plenitude and the organic "ripening" of forms to which Laurens aspired. The crouching figure is framed by its rigid back as the figure folds in upon itself, and in a subtle, angular counterpoint, one of the legs leans on a horizontal while the other bends at shoulder height, creating a dynamic relationship to the torso.

Just after the Second World War, Laurens created thirty-eight color woodcuts to illustrate Les Idylles by Theocritus, published by Tériade (Paris, 1945; fig. 1). The illustrations were based on Cariatides, the red painted forms composed of curves and angles in graphic contrast to the stark white sheet they are set against.

(fig. 1) Les Idylles, Illustrations de Henri Laurens. Paris: Triade, 1945. Private collection.