Lot 60
LOUIS-PHILIPPE HÉBERT, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Setadel Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
Arto Yuzbasiyan, Toronto, ON
Estate of Robert Young, Nova Scotia
Note:
Hébert’s nudes are known for their masterful handling as well as for their dramatic poses. Women—especially the nude—were a favoured subject for Hébert, which he believed to be the epitome of beauty and the ultimate test of a sculptor’s skill. A certain primness was characteristic of Québécois and Canadian audiences at the time, which Hébert skirted by presenting his nude sculptures as allegories. In La Chute, Hébert personifies the waterfall in the form of a nymph, perhaps a naiad from Greek mythology.
Hébert regularly travelled to Paris to absorb the energies of the greatest artists of the period and to gain inspiration. Perhaps this bronze was inspired by the naiad that presides over the Fontaine Medicis in the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris, sculpted by Claude Ramey. It also prefigures one of Hébert’s most enduring sculptures, the Monument à John Young, a fountain situated in the Vieux-Port de Montréal. One of the four bronze elements of that monument is the allegorical figure of the River God holding a bowl from which water flows into the basin below--and echoes the pose of La Chute.
This lot is accompanied by a letter of authentication from Bernard Desroches of Galerie Bernard Desroches, dated April 22, 1987. The letter describes this lot as a unique casting.
CONDITION DETAILS
The work is in good condition with a minute condition issue. Please contact us for a detailed report.
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