Updated 08 April 2025
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Currently not on display
Ile-de-France
| Date | 1925 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | bronze |
| Size（cm） | 167 x 47 x 49 |
| Inscriptions | Signed (in monogram) and inscribed right top: AM / épreuve de l'artiste; Foundry mark back of base: Alexis Rudier. / Fondeur. Paris |
| Credit Line | Purchased |
| Category | Sculptures |
| Collection Number | S.1963-0002 |
To Maillol, nature was the source of movement and thought. Nature was the one thing that he had faith in. The female form was a miniature universe encompassing the order, harmony, beauty and peace of nature. He gave nature-based names such as La Méditerranée, Mountain, River, Spring, Summer, Night, and Atmosphere to his numerous sculptures of the female form. Ile-de-France refers to the fertile land surrounding Paris which is bounded by the Seine, Marne and Oise Rivers. Maillol loved the rich nature of the Ile-de-France in addition to that of his home town of Banyuls, and he spent the majority of his life in one of these two locales. In 1910 Maillol conceived of the motif of a "Young Girl Walking in Water" and created three torso practice works of the subject before 1921. Ile-de-France was then based on these study torsos. This female form with its expanded chest, gently pulled back left leg and straight right supporting leg, does not actually walk, but rather shows the figure simply standing as it has newly emerged from the earth. The movement that arcs from the left leg up through the stomach, chest and shoulder, both arms holding a cloth that naturally stretch back from the perpendicular right leg, and the quiet poise of the head glancing to the left all contribute in a calm flowing movement. Maillol's sculptural methods are architectural rather than modelled in their creation of a synthesis of the individual forms of a human body into an ordered structure that balances contrast and harmony. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 146)
Provenance
Purchased by the NMWA, 1964.
Exhibition History
- 1963
- Maillol, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2 August 1963 - 15 September 1963, cat. no. 47
- 1970
- Discovery of Harmony, Expo Museum of Fine Arts, 15 March 1970 - 13 September 1970, cat. no. IV-249, repr.
- 1984
- Exposition Maillol, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, 7 April 1984 - 6 May 1984, cat. no. S-43, repr. color., Hiroshima Museum of Art, 12 May 1984 - 17 June 1984, Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, 23 June 1984 - 29 July 1984
- 1984
- Development of Sculpture in the Twentieth Century : from Rodin to Christo, The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, 26 August 1984 - 7 October 1984, cat. no. 9, repr.
- 1997
- Resonating Love and Life: European Art from National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, 12 April 1997 - 18 May 1997, cat. no. 39
Bibliography
- 1964
- George, Waldemar. Aristide Maillol et l'âme de la sculpture. Neuchâtel, Suisse, Editions Ides et calendes, 1964, p. 180, p. 183, repr.
- 1967
- Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 1, 1967, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions. pp. 22-23, no. S-67. repr.
- 1984
- Development of Sculpture in the Twentieth Century: From Rodin to Christo (exh. cat.). The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, ed. [Otsu], The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, 1984, p. 63, cat. 9, repr.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 146, repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 146, repr.