Georges Lacombe (1816–1916). “The Damned Women” — reclining damned women....

Georges Lacombe (1816–1916). “The Damned Women” — reclining damned women. Carved wooden bas-relief, circa 1905–1907, monogram in the lower right corner. Dimensions: 60 x 29.5 x 4.5 cm. On the back, old exhibition and shipping labels, including one from the Pont-Aven Town Hall for the “Gauguin and His Friends” exhibition, Georges Lacombe, *The Damned Women*, catalog no. 98, owned by Mr. Hepp. This work was exhibited in 1907 at the Bernheim Gallery on Rue Richepanse, in an exhibition of works (painting and sculpture) by Messrs. Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Hermann-Paul, Lacombe, Aristide Maillol, Ranson, K-X Roussel, Sérusier, Valloton, and Vuillard, June 3–15, no. 27. It is reproduced in the catalog raisonné, p. 122, and Cat. 182a, p. 187. The panel presented here is the first panel in the series. It depicts *The Reclining Damned Women*, a reference to the first stanza of Charles Baudelaire’s poem. Here, the painter uses a horizontal format to illustrate the reclining, entwined bodies of the women. He adopts a refined, symbolist style to evoke the landscape—a sort of paradisiacal nature set against a “background of trees with scaly trunks like those of coconut palms or date palms”—and creates, within this interweaving of elements, a harmony between the flora and the female nudes. In this bas-relief, one can see the marks of the sculptor’s work and all his skill. As the artist’s gouge delves deeply into the thickness of the wood, the work becomes more refined; the female figures become softer; the artist rounds out the contours of the bodies and, by playing with the wood’s grain, renders the voluptuous silhouettes and the curves of the bodies with great sensuality. Bibliographic references: Catalogue raisonné "George Lacombe - 1868-1916" by Joëlle Ansieau, Somogy Edition d'art, 1998.