Study for Action in Chains
Aristide MAILLOL
(French, 1861-1944)
Study for Action in Chains
Date1905
Mediumbronze
Dimensionsobject: 48 x 29 x 20 in. (121.9 x 73.7 x 50.8 cm)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Wright S. Ludington
Object number1993.1.40
Subject(s)
- women
- nudes
Collection
- 20th century French
On View
Not on viewLabel TextThis over life-size bronze is one of two, conceived of by Maillol while he was at work on a monument to commemorate the radical socialist hero, Louis-Auguste Blanqui. Blanqui spent thirty-six years in prison as punishment for his unshakable opposition to successive absolutist régimes, echoing the revolutionary sentiments he had inherited from his father, who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI after the French Revolution. The completed female personification, entitled Action in Chains, is on permanent display in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. She strides purposefully forward, even though her hands have been bound behind her back. By eliminating all but the figure’s twisting torso, Maillol concentrates expression in the dramatic torsion of her midsection to powerfully communicate Blanqui’s defiant commitment to his political ideals.
