A Chana Orloff exhibition at the Musée Zadkine

3/3/24 - Exhibition - Paris, Musée Zadkine - She tends towards caricature without ever making fun of her model, for whom she has an obvious tenderness. Chana Orloff sculpts portraits with a benevolent humour, translating the haughty bearing of the painter Ivanna Lemaître, the tormented gravity of the artist Alexandre Iacovleff, and the doll-like innocence of her beloved son Didi. His pared-down works are nevertheless faithful to reality: here a trumpet nose, there a sulky pout, a receding chin or a flowery beard make it possible to identify the person depicted. In 1924, the critic Robert Rey admired Widhopff’s portrait in the following terms (ill. 1): the sculptress knows how to "wonderfully isolate some of the characteristics that dominate the models she proposes to herself. From then on, she eliminates little by little, with a disconcerting certainty of demolition, all that does not contribute exactly to the determination of these characteristics: she adds nothing, or so little!... This is not caricature, it is an extract of resemblance [1]".----

1. Chana Orloff (1888-1968)
The Painter Widhopff, or The Man with the Pipe, 1924
Painted plaster - 101 x 61 x 54 cm
Paris, Ateliers-Musée Chana Orloff
Chana Orloff, Adagp, Paris 2023.
Photo: Stéphane Briolant

See the image in its page

Accessories are of course important: it’s no coincidence that Romaine Brooks wears a large fur-trimmed coat, while Gaston Picard wears a modern suit that’s a little too tight. These attributes reflect the model’s personality, but they also transform him into a character: the beautiful Ivanna Lemaître becomes The Lady with the Fan (ill. 2) and the painter Widhopff is The Man with the Pipe. These two sculptures were very successful at the Salon d’Automne, one in 1920, the other in 1924. Some of the figures even tend towards allegory: little Nadine with her chubby face and her two hands wisely crossed on her skirt embodies Childhood (ill. 3).

2. Chana…