$12,065
Estimate: $12,000 - $18,000
What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part I
Auction: February 27, 2024 at 12 PM ET
Signed ‘R. DE.LA.FRESNAYE’ on the base, to the left; also with ‘CIRE/C.VALSUANI/PERDUE’ foundry stamp on the rim of the base, to the right, bronze with golden brown patina
Height: 12 in.
Width: 17 1/8 in.
Depth: 7 ¾ in.
Conceived in 1910-1911, this bronze version cast circa 1950s.
The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Eberhard Nebelthau, Roger de la Fresnaye, Paul de Montaignac, Paris, 1935 (the plaster version illustrated).
Roger de la Fresnaye’s approach to form may be thought of as a blend of Orphist tendencies tempered by strains of classicism that contained Symbolist influences, all of which served as a departure from the sort of pure Cubism espoused at the time by artists such as Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso. The result, as evidenced in the present lot, is a kind of abstracted realism which here showcases one of the artist’s favored subjects: the human figure.
Here, Eve turns her head to the left, away from the viewer, with her right hand supporting her left leg, and she is presented with a greater sense of mass and solidity than are other early- career works by la Fresnaye, including the woman who is the subject of his bronze, Femme Italienne, with its multi-faceted surface planes. Ève Assise is also noteworthy because she reveals the direct influence of fellow French artist Aristide Maillol, whose various Femme Assise and Jeune Fille Assise bronze models clearly relate to the present lot. It is not surprising as the two artists worked together for a time at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, Paris : this connection between the two artists, encapsulated in this bronze, is exactly what appealed to Mr. Rothberg.