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A nude statue of a man seated, resting his right arm on his knee.

The nude statue shows a seated man, head bent down, his right leg is bent in a ninety-degree angle with his right elbow rests on his right knee. His left leg is bent at a forty-degree angle, his left-hand rests on his knee. He is seated on a square base which rests on a rectangular plate. The figure is fully realized with defined hair, muscles, finger, toes, and genitals.

Gallery Text

Émile Mayrisch (1862–1928) was a leading industrialist from Luxembourg who negotiated the merger of three iron and steel businesses in 1911. After the end of World War I, he gained international influence when he helped establish a western European steel cartel. Upon his death in 1928, a memorial tomb was erected at his estate in Colpach, near the Belgian border. Despiau was commissioned to sculpt a large statue for a site at the edge of a reflecting pool: not a portrait, but a classically inspired male nude. This is an intermediate version of the final bronze; its pose and downward gaze emphasize the monument’s commemorative and contemplative functions.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.84
People
Charles Despiau, French (Mont-de-Marsan, France 1874 - 1946 Paris, France)
Title
Seated Man, Study for the Monument to Emile Mayrisch
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Le Réalisateur / Le Penseur
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1930
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229062

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1220, European Art, 19th–20th century, Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast
Dimensions
76.2 x 41.2 x 54.6 cm (30 x 16 1/4 x 21 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: Proper left rear: C. Despiau
  • stamp: proper left rear of plinth, stamped: CIRE / C. VALSUANI / PERDUE

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Maurice Wertheim, New York, NY, 1939, Bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1951.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
Copyright
© Charles Despiau / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.84
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK HAS SIGNIFICANT LOAN RESTRICTIONS BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Léon Deshairs, C. Despiau (Paris, 1930), 71-72, 88
  • Alfred M. Frankfurter, "Today's Collectors: Modern Milestones", Art News (June 1946), vol. XLV, no. 4, p. 64
  • The Maurice Wertheim Catalogue: Modern French Art-- Monet to Picasso, exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC, 1960), pp. 78-79, repr.
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 66
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), no. 7, repr.
  • Vivien Raynor, "Art: Impressionist Show at the I.B.M. Gallery" [review], The New York Times (New York, NY, April 26, 1985), p. C24
  • John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 43, pp. 142-145, repr. p. 144
  • Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6

Exhibition History

  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
  • French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
  • Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1220 Wertheim, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu