43

GEORGE MINNE (1866-1941)

Estimate20 000 - 30 000
Back to auction
GEORGE MINNE (1866-1941)
The Agenouillé of the fountain
Bronze with brown patina
Signed and numbered on 8 with the founder's stamp 'C. Valsuani/Cire/Perdue'.
Posthumous casting after a model created in 1895-1898 and enlarged
Bronze with dark brown patina, signed and numbered of 8 with the 'C. Valsuani/Cire/Perdue' foundry mark, posthumous cast after a model created in 1895-1898 and enlarged
144 cm - 56 3/4 in.

Provenance
- Sale, Art moderne, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Paris, Hôtel Drouot-Montaigne, June 6, 2002, lot 22
- Private collection, France (acquired in previous sale)

Bibliography
- Leo van Puyvelde, George Minne, Brussels: Éditions des "Cahiers de Belgique", S.A., 1930, p. 77, described under no. 26 (another bronze copy, h. 78, and a marble copy, h. 78 cm, titled L'Agenouillé de la fontaine) and reproduced on pl. 24 and 25 (a marble copy, h. 78 cm).
- André de Ridder, George Minne, Antwerp: de Sikkel, 1947, p. 16, no. 14 (the bronze example, in the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts, titled De geknielde aan de bron).

Related works
George Minne (1866-1941), L'Agenouillé de la fontaine, bronze, signed with the founder's stamp 'C. Valsuani/Cire/Perdue', 147 cm, private collection, in. Sale, Modern Belgian Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures, Christie's, London, October 20, 1988, lot 28

"Isn't La Fontaine's Agenouillé, repeated five times on the curbstone of a well, the most perfect plastic image of the soul reflecting on itself, indulging in meditation and afraid of the tumult of life?"
Leo Van Puyvelde, 1930