OLGA BEHR (Austria, active in Paris between 1893 and 1907). "Female bust". Decorated bronze.
OLGA BEHR (Austria, active in Paris between 1893 and 1907).
"Female bust.
Decorated bronze.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture of the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Signed.
Size: 34 x 47 x 22 cm.
This bust depicts a beautiful woman with fine, subtle features who decorates her hair with a double frontal barrette, following the fashion of the early 20th century. In Art Nouveau, influenced by Symbolist literature, women are considered to be beings of transformation and metamorphosis, and for this reason they are often depicted with extreme fantasy, being associated with the supernatural and the unknown. The feminine is intimately associated with the hidden part of nature, with the mysterious and therefore attractive and seductive. The fragile woman, with narrow shoulders and a stylised figure, like a nymph or sylph, lures men inexorably towards perdition. She is therefore conceived as a contradictory figure, exotic and weak in appearance but demonic in essence.
Although little biographical information is known about Olga Behr, we do know that she was a sculptor-decorator active in Paris between 1893 and 1907. It is known that at the beginning of the 20th century she also worked as an illustrator for fashion magazines such as La Nouvelle Mode and La Haute Mode de Paris. She took part in exhibitions organised by the Salon de la Société, as well as the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors.
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OLGA BEHR (Austria, active in Paris between 1893 and 1907).
"Female bust.
Decorated bronze.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture of the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Signed.
Size: 34 x 47 x 22 cm.
This bust depicts a beautiful woman with fine, subtle features who decorates her hair with a double frontal barrette, following the fashion of the early 20th century. In Art Nouveau, influenced by Symbolist literature, women are considered to be beings of transformation and metamorphosis, and for this reason they are often depicted with extreme fantasy, being associated with the supernatural and the unknown. The feminine is intimately associated with the hidden part of nature, with the mysterious and therefore attractive and seductive. The fragile woman, with narrow shoulders and a stylised figure, like a nymph or sylph, lures men inexorably towards perdition. She is therefore conceived as a contradictory figure, exotic and weak in appearance but demonic in essence.
Although little biographical information is known about Olga Behr, we do know that she was a sculptor-decorator active in Paris between 1893 and 1907. It is known that at the beginning of the 20th century she also worked as an illustrator for fashion magazines such as La Nouvelle Mode and La Haute Mode de Paris. She took part in exhibitions organised by the Salon de la Société, as well as the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors.
