MAURICE TAVERNIER (1926-2018) Lot n° 307

Sitting nudeSculpture in patinated wood resting on a rectangular base . A French artist born in Puy-en-Velay, he began drawing vellous landscapes, animals and portraits in watercolour at a very young age. It was later that he started sculpting with a knife, first small objects and then picturesque aspects of Le Puy in pyrography bas-reliefs. Attracted by the noble and living material represented by wood, he then set about interpreting the works of the great masters of the Renaissance such as Botticelli, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. It was only in 1957 that he made his first original creation following the commission for the Way of the Cross for the church of St. Andeol de Berg. From the bas-relief he then moves on to the round bump in direct carving with stripped forms, suggested by the veins of the wood, with classical religious subjects and then modern life-size busts, including that of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1975. He will also create classical nudes, more elegant and stylized afterwards. Dimensions: 36 x 13 x 40 cm