VICTOR SEGOFFIN (Toulouse, 1867-1925). "La Suppliante",... Lot 29

VICTOR SEGOFFIN (Toulouse, 1867-1925). "La Suppliante", 1899. Bronze. Signed and dated at the bottom. Numbered "10". Founder's stamp. Exhibitions: "Un poco de escultura, por favor!: La escultura europea del siglo XX", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014. Reproduced in the catalogue of this exhibition, published by the Fundació de les Arts i els Artistes, 2014. Size: 57 cm. height. Weight: 7 kg. "The Supplicant" belongs to a period of maturity in the artistic career of Victor Segoffin, who went through Romantic and neo-Baroque stages to end up approaching Rodin. "The Supplicant" was exhibited at the Salon of 1901 and was produced in bronze and biscuit de Sèvres. The figure, with her arms folded over her bust and her hands joined in an imploring attitude, drawing a slight curve in space with the twist of her waist, conveys a silent, mystical pathos. Victor Segoffin is considered one of the last continuers of the Romantic spirit of the 19th century. In Italy he admired the work of Michelangelo, Bernini and the Florentine sculpture of the Quattrocento. An example of Buonarroti's influence is "The Evil Genius", which also has romantic connotations. However, as early as his first major work, "Orpheus Losing Eurydice for the Second Time", announced his most characteristic style, baroque and full of violent dynamism, through the dramatic treatment of the tunics, also present in his masterpiece, "The Sacred (or Warrior) Dance", originally conceived in 1903 for the Elysée Palace with its partner, "The Profane Dance". The critics appreciated the ancestral treatment of a classical theme, evoked in this transformation of the unhinged expression of the face into a mask. It is represented in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and in Toulouse, Musée des Augustins de Toulouse.