A Bourdelle for the Montauban museum

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15/2/23 - Acquisition - Paris, Musée Ingres - It is not known who Marcelle Coquard was, portrayed by Antoine Bourdelle at the age of 15 (ill. 1). Her plaster bust was purchased from the Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes by the Musée Ingres in Montauban, the artist’s birthplace. Although the Musée Bourdelle in Paris has a drawing of the sculpture, by the artist himself (ill. 2), it was not interested in acquiring it, so it reported the portrait to the occitan museum, which owns a substantial collection of the sculptor’s works, and has now been renamed the Musée Ingres-Bourdelle.


1. Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)
Portrait of Marcelle Coquard, 1886
Studio plaster with a terracotta patina - 54 x 21 x 23 cm
Montauban, Musée Ingres
Photo: La Nouvelle Athènes
See the image in its page

Accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1884, Bourdelle trained with Alexandre Falguière, then moved to the studio in the 15th arrondissement that now houses his museum. Produced in 1886, this bust of Marcelle Coquard is a youthful work, quite comparable, as Colin Lemoine - author of several works on the artist (see article) - points out, to the portrait of the Marquise Silvia de Mari, sculpted one year later, of which the Musée Ingres possesses a marble. Bourdelle, when he captured the features of these two women, was not yet influenced by Rodin, whose practitioner he became in 1893, and with whom he kept up a correspondence (see article). He did not try to make the sculptor’s work visible, but first of all to faithfully translate the face of his models. At the same time, he exhibited First Victory of Hannibal at the 1885 Salon, in which he demonstrated a certain naturalism, which was later superseded by a more synthetic approach. These early years were difficult, and he also created a whole series of drawings, dark in both technique and subject (see article).


2. Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)
Drawing for the Bust of Marcelle Coquard
Recto and verso
Charcoal - 61.3 x 41.4 cm
Paris, Musée Bourdelle
Photo: Musée Bourdelle
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The Musée Ingres had acquired another creation by Antoine Bourdelle that we did not mention in 2019, when it reopened its doors after a vast renovation project (see article). He had indeed bought a painting, once again from the Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes, representing the artist’s first wife, Stéphanie Van Parys (ill. 3). For it is forgotten that Bourdelle handled the brush, his painted work having been eclipsed by his monumental sculptures. He exhibited paintings and pastels, mainly portraits, between 1891 and 1898 at the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts, then at the Salon d’automne in 1905, and also took part in the decoration of the foyer of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées between 1911 and 1913.


3. Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)
Portrait of Stéphanie Bourdelle Seated, c. 1905
Oil on canvas - 65.3 x 54 cm
Montauban, Musée Ingres
Photo: La Nouvelle Athènes
See the image in its page

He met Stephanie Van Parys in the early 1890s, a young employee of the magazine Femina, who came to pose for a pastel. She was married, but had an affair with the artist and gave birth to Pierre in 1901. She eventually divorced him and married Bourdelle in 1904. She posed for him on numerous occasions, both for paintings and sculptures, portraits and allegorical or historical figures. The Musée Bourdelle has a painting almost identical to this one. As the entry for La Nouvelle Athènes points out, the brush carves into the material in a sculptural manner and the figure seems to emerge from an earthy background.
Stéphanie can be seen wearing the same dress in Madame Van Parys in Blue and The Offering. She also posed for Penelope, but her form is already blended with the features of Cleopatra Sevastos, a young Greek pupil of the sculptor, whom he married some years later. Stéphanie Van Parys kept several works by Bourdelle with her, including the painting acquired by Montauban.

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