Germaine RICHIER (1904-1959) The Chessboard,... - Lot 30 - De Baecque et Associés

Lot 30
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Germaine RICHIER (1904-1959) The Chessboard,... - Lot 30 - De Baecque et Associés
Germaine RICHIER (1904-1959) The Chessboard, small 1955 Bronze proof with dark brown patina, signed and justified HC3 on the left on the top of the first crosspiece constituting the tray, stamped by the founder Valsuani on the right side of the same crosspiece The original edition of this work includes 12 prints justified from 1/8 to 8/8 and HC1, HC2, HC3, EA Plateau : H. 8,5 cm - W. 114,5 cm - D. 83 cm The King : H. 36 cm - W. 13 cm - D. 5,5 cm The Queen : H. 41 cm - W. 17 cm - D. 5,5 cm The Knight : H. 33,5 cm - L. 9,5 cm - D. 5,5 cm The Tower : H. 36,7 cm - L. 9,5 cm - D. 6 cm The Fool : H. 33,5 cm - L. 18 cm - D. 4,5 cm The tray is fixed on a quadripod metal base of square section H. 66 cm - L. 56 cm - D. 42 cm Dimensions with the base : H. 95 cm - L. 114,5 cm - D. 83 cm DV Provenance : Michelle and Pierre Fagot Collection, gift from Henri Creuzevault to his daughter and son-in-law. Bibliography/Exhibition (similar prints): Jean-Louis Prat and Françoise Guiter, Catalogue de l'exposition Germaine Richier, Rétrospective, Fondation Maeght, 5 avril-25 juin 1996, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, 1996, reproduced and described under n°82, pages 154 and 155 London, Gimpel Fils Gallery, June 26-August 31, 1973, Germaine Richier Retrospective, n°17 The Chessboards, Small (1955) and Large (1959) are among the most emblematic of Germaine Richier's last creations. The chessboard is the basis of the possible combinations governing the relationships between beings and consequently offers the opportunity for mobility, although this remains governed by the strict rules of movement specific to the game. The typology of the different pieces is remarkable. The King with his totemic head holds in his left hand a gigantic compass, an instrument for measuring his mode and an indispensable tool for the sculptor. The Queen, strange heiress of the Mantis and the Griffin, worries with her two raised arms and her horned and horse-like figure. The Rider expresses a cunning finesse with his seahorse profile, while the Fool, hunchbacked and wearing a characteristic cap with bells, remains all in cunning trickery. The Rook appears as a very fragile architecture on its tripod, a threatening ruin that inevitably echoes its support, the chessboard, a chaotic and fragmented space, lined with pitfalls in which any movement seems doomed to failure. The absence of pawns is notable. Germaine Richier synthesizes in the Chessboards several of her great ideas, the complex and strongly expressive typology of these hybrid and animated creations and the prodigious mise en abime of the drama of their interaction. In 1959, back in her Parisian studio after months of convalescence in Provence, Germaine Richier elaborated the large version of L'Échiquier in bronze and reworked the original plaster casts, on which she applied a polychromy, gay colors for serious sculpture, elaborating her ultimate masterpiece in color. Death took her away a few months later on July 31, 1959
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