JOSEPH BERNARD (1866-1931) Lot n° 382

Woman with child, Bronze study with brown patina Model created around 1912 Posthumous cast iron Signed "J. Bernard", dated "1974", numbered "20/25" and bearing the stamp of the founder Coubertin H.: 57 cm Origin: family of the artist, by descent. Related literature: - Luc Benoit, "Joseph Bernard (1866-1931)", in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1932, vol 2, pp.217-228; - Joseph Bernard, Vienne, bibliothèque régionale d'histoire et d'art, Blanchard Frères, 1934, table XI; - Didier Chautant, Recherches sur la vie et l'oeuvre de Joseph Bernard 1866-1931: sculpteur français, 1977, sn; doc. 24, pp.68-69René Jullian, jean Bernard, Lucien Stoenesco, Pascale Grémont Gervaise, Joseph Bernard, Fondation de Coubertin, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuses, 1989, p.311, n°186; - Catherine Chevillot, Paris, crucible for sculpture (1900-1904), 3 vol, s.l., 2013. Related works: - Joseph Bernard, Woman and child dancing or Woman with child, 1925, bronze group, size 183 X 48 X 77 cm, signed "J Bernard" on the terrace, cast by Alexis and Eugène Rudier, RF 3162, Paris, Musée d'Orsay. - Joseph Bernard, Woman dancing with a child, around 1920, pencil and graphite drawing, H.: 32 X L. 25 cm, n°inv. FC.85.2.964, Fondation de Coubertin. This charming bronze group, entitled Femme et Enfant, features two young dancers, a mother and her son, happily drawn into a round. It was executed by the Viennese sculptor (Isère) Joseph-Antoine Bernard, after a model that occupied the artist for many years, between 1914 and 1925. This work is a remarkable testimony to the artist's predilection for the theme of dance, a theme he explored intensely in the 1920s and in which these stylized, simple and feminine girls are most moving. It belongs to this thematic corpus of which the Dance frieze, carved directly from marble, is the masterpiece (preserved in Paris, Musée d'Orsay, n°inv.RF.3514). Joseph Ber