Torso of Summer
Aristide MAILLOL
(French, 1861-1944)
Torso of Summer
Dateca. 1910
Mediumbronze
Dimensionsobject: 56 x 15 x 14 in. (142.2 x 38.1 x 35.6 cm)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory
Object number1998.50.51
Subject(s)
- summer
- women
- female figure, allegorical
- nudes
Collection
- 20th century French
On View
On viewCollections
Label TextWhen Maillol moved from other media to work in sculpture, he set himself a life-long task to explore, almost exclusively through the nude female form, a great range of compositional ideas. He reinterpreted the classical ideals of figurative sculpture in modern terms, simplified and purified to its essentials. And, rather than working from a human model, he often invented these figures, only “testing” his final form by studying the model at the end of the process. With the success of his sculpture Pomona at the Salon of 1910, Maillol was commissioned by the Russian collector Ivan Morosov to produce allegorical figures of the four seasons. Each went through a series of studies and some were cast in several versions. Summer was represented as both a complete figure and, in this cast, armless and headless, while in the version nearby, she still retains her head.
1936
