LÉON-ERNEST DRIVIER (Grenoble, 1878 - Paris 1951). "The Rape of Andromeda", 1910-1920. Plaster.

LÉON-ERNEST DRIVIER (Grenoble, 1878 - Paris 1951).
"The Abduction of Andromeda", 1910-1920.
Plaster.
Unsigned.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture in the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Size: 83 cm.
This sculpture represents the abduction of Andromeda in a superb manner, paying special attention to the details and the anatomy of the bodies. According to Conon's account, Cepheus reigned in Yope (Phoenicia some time later). Andromeda (daughter of Cepheus) was very beautiful and was courted by Phoenix and her uncle Phineus. After an intense argument, Cepheus decided to marry his daughter to Phoenix, but to avoid a quarrel with his brother Phineus, he pretended to abduct his daughter.
An illustrator and sculptor, Léon-Ernest Drivier entered the École des Beaux-Arts on a scholarship. His teacher there was Louis-Ernest Barrias. From 1907 he worked in Auguste Rodin's studio. He was friends with the sculptors Auguste de Niederhausern, Gaston Schnegg, Jane Poupelet and Antoine Bourdelle, among others, with whom he formed "la Bande à Schnegg", who reacted to Rodin's unfinished and sfumato works with a more classical and synthetic style. His first period was akin to neo-Romanticism, and then he moved towards the neoclassicism of Charles Despiau. He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1943.