OSSIP ZADKINE
(Vitebsk 1890–1967 Paris)
Le Messager. 1937.
Bronze, black patina. Cast in 1971.
Signed and numbered lower left on the plinth: O. Zadkine 2/8.
On the reverse with the foundry stamp: Susse Fondeur Paris.
H 114.5 cm.
Provenance:
- Auction Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, 31.5.1990, lot 22.
- Swiss private collection, acquired at the above auction and by descent to the present owners.
Literature:
Sylvain Lecombre: Ossip Zadkine, L'œuvre sculpté, Paris 1994, p. 332, no. 297 (with ill.).
"Le messager” by the sculptor Ossip Zadkine is based on the monumental sculpture of the same name placed between the Quai d'Orsay and the Pont des Invalides in Paris. In the version offered here, the ship of the Nautes of Lutetia that symbolises the city of Paris has been replaced with mythological references to antiquity, structures resembling Ionic capitals, acanthus leaves and parchment scrolls. Its spatial interpenetration, which creates an interplay of solid and void within the tangle of lines, lends the sculpted object a poetic strength between complexity and simplicity. Drawing on the Cubist vocabulary, the sculpture’s geometric structure presents the viewer with unexpected perspectives from a variety of vantage points. A further example of our figure has stood in the village square in Vic-Fezensac in the Gers region of France since 1993.
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Time, Location
Auction House
(Vitebsk 1890–1967 Paris)
Le Messager. 1937.
Bronze, black patina. Cast in 1971.
Signed and numbered lower left on the plinth: O. Zadkine 2/8.
On the reverse with the foundry stamp: Susse Fondeur Paris.
H 114.5 cm.
Provenance:
- Auction Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, 31.5.1990, lot 22.
- Swiss private collection, acquired at the above auction and by descent to the present owners.
Literature:
Sylvain Lecombre: Ossip Zadkine, L'œuvre sculpté, Paris 1994, p. 332, no. 297 (with ill.).
"Le messager” by the sculptor Ossip Zadkine is based on the monumental sculpture of the same name placed between the Quai d'Orsay and the Pont des Invalides in Paris. In the version offered here, the ship of the Nautes of Lutetia that symbolises the city of Paris has been replaced with mythological references to antiquity, structures resembling Ionic capitals, acanthus leaves and parchment scrolls. Its spatial interpenetration, which creates an interplay of solid and void within the tangle of lines, lends the sculpted object a poetic strength between complexity and simplicity. Drawing on the Cubist vocabulary, the sculpture’s geometric structure presents the viewer with unexpected perspectives from a variety of vantage points. A further example of our figure has stood in the village square in Vic-Fezensac in the Gers region of France since 1993.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
