Marcel GIMOND
Torso of a Woman
1927

About the Item

Torso of a Woman by Marcel GIMOND (1894-1961) Avery fine nuanced brown chamotte sandstone sculpture raised on a dark grey marble base signed on the arm with the monogram "MG" for Marcel Gimond inscribed with the monogram "GS" for Georges Serré stamped by the galerie Rouard France 1927 total height 50 cm width 20,5 cm depth 20 cm After a model by Marcel Gimond, this bust was made in 1927 by Georges Serré at the Manufacture de Sèvres, sold exclusively by the Rouard Gallery, and exhibited the same year at the Paris Fall Fair (Salon d'Automne). Reproduced in "Sculpteurs nouveaux, Marcel Gimond", Paul Fierens, Nrf, 1930, cover. Biographies : Marcel Gimond (1894-1961) was a French sculptor. He studied in Lyon, then at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon where he graduated in 1917. Finally he arrived in Paris the same year and settled in Marly-Le-Roi. Student of Aristide Maillol, he also met Raoul Dufy and Auguste Renoir. Gimond worked with Maillol until 1920, and left him to settle in Paris and regain his independence. He then moved into Renoir's former studio, made available by Jean Renoir. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne in 1922. In 1940, Gimond left Paris to settle in the South zone, in Lyon, then in Aix en Provence; He spent his summers at Saint-Félicien, at the house of poet Charles Forot. At the Liberation, in 1944, he returned to Paris and his workshop rue Ordener, he left only a few months before his death. From 1946 to 1960, he directed a workshop at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Marcel Gimond was known for his busts of political and artistic personalities. He also owed two bas-reliefs located in the lobby of the newspaper "L'Humanité", in tribute to Marcel Cachin and Gabriel Péri. Georges Serré (1889-1956) was a French ceramist. He worked at the Sèvres factory until 1914, when he was mobilized to go to war. He then went to Indochina where he taught ceramics at the art school of Bien-hoa for five years. On his return to France, he moved to Sèvres, rue Brongniart, but encountered difficulties in producing his works, until the intervention of the ceramist Emile Decoeur who obtained him help to build an oven for firing his ceramics. It was Georges Rouard and his gallery located on avenue de l'Opéra in Paris, who had noticed him at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925, which presented him during his "exhibitions of contemporary French artisans". Georges Serré's taste for these sandstones came to him, among other things, from Khmer sculptures, including a Buddha's head that he had brought back from Saigon, which had seduced him so much in Indochina. He liked the warm tone as much as the rough consistency pushing him to create a material that would be close to it. It was, at Rouard's request, that he produced reproductions of modern sculptures, including this bust by Marcel Gimond. Georges Rouard (1874-1929), an erudite art lover, was in 1900 director of the auction house "A la Paix", founded twenty years earlier by Jules Mabut and located at 34 avenue de l'Opéra in Paris. Since 1914, he has promoted modern decorative arts, disseminated the works of decorative artists, glassmakers, goldsmiths and ceramists and founded the group of 'Contemporary French Craftsmen'. Each presents 15 to 20 pieces, twice a year for the Autumn and Spring exhibitions; in return, Rouard asked exhibitors to ‘consider him as the only merchant in Paris’. The first exhibition entitled ‘Les Artisans Français Contemporains chez Géo Rouard’ took place in May 1914 with the participation of René Lalique, Clément Mère, Franz Waldraff, Georges Bastard, Jacques Lenoble, Emile Decoeur and Jean Dunand. The experience being conclusive, it was renewed every year until 1935 with also the ceramists René Buthaud, Auguste Delaherche, Pierre Lebasque, Jean Mayodon, Georges Serré, Henri Simmen, the glassmakers François Décorchemont, Henri Navarre, the coppersmiths Jean Dunand, Claudius Linossier, the goldsmiths Maurice Daurat, Jean Puiforcat, etc. An exclusive contract sometimes linked the gallery to members of 'Artisans Français Contemporains', which built loyalty among decorative artists, as they didn't exhibit their work in department stores. In the 1920s, the renowned house "Galerie Rouard" presented table services from different manufacturers (manufacture royale de Saxe, Daum, Val Saint Lambert, Limoges, Boch Frères and of course Sèvres), crystals and artistic furniture from Gallé. Georges Rouard was himself president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Céramique et de la Verrerie, departmental inspector of technical education as well as a member of the board of directors of Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. By presenting tableware and decorative arts in the same place of sale and by favoring unique pieces and semi-industrial editions, the Rouard gallery reached an audience of collectors and well-off enthusiasts. After the sudden death of Georges Rouard in 1929, his son Paul took over the management of the house until 1931, then his son-in-law André Chesnay until 1966.

Creator:

Marcel GIMOND (1894 - 1961, French)

Creation Year:

1927

Dimensions:

Height: 19.69 in (50 cm)Width: 8.08 in (20.5 cm)Depth: 7.88 in (20 cm)

Medium:

Terracotta

Movement & Style:

French School

Period:

1920-1929