BELGIAN KNEELING NUDE, Julien Dillens
1849 - 1904
Julien Dillens
signed: Jul. Dillens and inscribed: Cie des Bronzes / Bruxelles / cire perdue
bronze, on a veined red marble base
bronze: 46cm., 18 1/8 in.
base: 8 by 37cm., 3 1/8 by 14½in.
Provenance:
For the model of his Kneeling Nude, Julien Dillens was directly inspired by Lorenzo Bartolini's La Fiducia in Dio of 1835 (marble, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, inv. no. 1117). Dillens, who was trained at the Brussels Académie between 1861 and 1874, had worked under Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse on the sculptures for the Brussels Bourse in the early 1870s, and was subsequently employed as an assistant in Rodin's studio. The Kneeling Nude owes its inception to Dillens' four years spent as a Prix de Rome winner in Italy from 1877. His choice of La Fiducia in Dio as the basis for the present model was a natural one; his first major sculpture, Une Enigme, was also a seated female nude. He completed the Kneeling Nude not long after his return from Italy, exhibiting it for the first time in 1885 at the Exposition Universelle in Antwerp in a plaster version. The figure was exhibited numerous times during and after Dillens' lifetime. Notably it appeared at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, in a marble version. The original marble, in the larger size of 98cm., was acquired by the Belgian State from the artist and is in the collection of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The present bronze is a reduction of the marble model. It preserves the emotional intensity and quiet piety of the girl's manner, and in the smaller dimension it has a jewel-like quality, both precious and tender.
RELATED LITERATURE
Julien Dillens: Exposition de ses oeuvres dans la Salle Forst, exh. cat. Salle Forst, Antwerp, 1906, p. 22-27; J. van Lennep et al, La sculpture Belge au 19ème siecle, exh. cat. Générale de Banque et les auteurs, Brussels, 1990, pp. 367-72; J. van Lennep, Catalogue de la sculpture: Artistes nés entre 1750 et 1882, cat. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1992, p. 163; C. Engelen and M. Marx, Beeldhouwkunst in België vanaf 1830, Brussels, 2002, vol. I, pp. 595-8
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1849 - 1904
Julien Dillens
signed: Jul. Dillens and inscribed: Cie des Bronzes / Bruxelles / cire perdue
bronze, on a veined red marble base
bronze: 46cm., 18 1/8 in.
base: 8 by 37cm., 3 1/8 by 14½in.
Provenance:
For the model of his Kneeling Nude, Julien Dillens was directly inspired by Lorenzo Bartolini's La Fiducia in Dio of 1835 (marble, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, inv. no. 1117). Dillens, who was trained at the Brussels Académie between 1861 and 1874, had worked under Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse on the sculptures for the Brussels Bourse in the early 1870s, and was subsequently employed as an assistant in Rodin's studio. The Kneeling Nude owes its inception to Dillens' four years spent as a Prix de Rome winner in Italy from 1877. His choice of La Fiducia in Dio as the basis for the present model was a natural one; his first major sculpture, Une Enigme, was also a seated female nude. He completed the Kneeling Nude not long after his return from Italy, exhibiting it for the first time in 1885 at the Exposition Universelle in Antwerp in a plaster version. The figure was exhibited numerous times during and after Dillens' lifetime. Notably it appeared at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, in a marble version. The original marble, in the larger size of 98cm., was acquired by the Belgian State from the artist and is in the collection of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The present bronze is a reduction of the marble model. It preserves the emotional intensity and quiet piety of the girl's manner, and in the smaller dimension it has a jewel-like quality, both precious and tender.
RELATED LITERATURE
Julien Dillens: Exposition de ses oeuvres dans la Salle Forst, exh. cat. Salle Forst, Antwerp, 1906, p. 22-27; J. van Lennep et al, La sculpture Belge au 19ème siecle, exh. cat. Générale de Banque et les auteurs, Brussels, 1990, pp. 367-72; J. van Lennep, Catalogue de la sculpture: Artistes nés entre 1750 et 1882, cat. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1992, p. 163; C. Engelen and M. Marx, Beeldhouwkunst in België vanaf 1830, Brussels, 2002, vol. I, pp. 595-8
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