ROBERT WLÉRICK (Mont de Marsan, 1882-Paris, 1944).
"Toilette, 1928.
Bronze.
Ed. 8/10.
Signed and numbered at the bottom.
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.
Dimensions: 62 x 18 x 16 cm. Weight: 12.5 kg.
With his sculpture "Toilette", Robert Wlérick revisits the classical theme of the bather and inscribes it in modernity by representing an everyday female figure, rejecting both timeless idealism and traditional naturalistic realism. Indeed, in this bronze, the sculptor succeeds in synthesising the key to his artistic understanding in a self-absorbed gesture and an anatomy that is veristic but far removed from anecdotalism: simplicity and harmony, but without lending itself to lyricism or falling into obsolete canons. Robert Wlérick was one of the foremost sculptors of French New Classicism, and became one of the most influential artists of his generation in the subsequent practice of the discipline. He was a member of the group of sculptors known as the "Bande à Scnegg", who gathered around Lucien Schnegg (1864-190).
Schnegg (1864-1909), who explored the plastic possibilities of the renewed classical language in modern sculpture. In 1913, Robert Wlérick began teaching at the École Germain Pilon, the École des Arts Appliquées and the Grande Chaumière. He exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and in 1917, along with Bourdelle, Dejean, Despiau and Maillol, he took part in the foundation of the Salon des Tuileries. He also took part in the Salon des Artistes décoratifs at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925, where he was represented by four works, and regularly sent works to the Salon d'Automne. He took part in the International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques in 1937 with commissions such as a Zeus for the Electricity Pavilion, The Offering for the Petit Palais and Youth, exhibited with the "Masters of Independent Art". In 1994, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Wlérick's death, four French museums such as the Musée Bourdelle in Paris and the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan organised an exhibition of his sketches and drawings. An anthology of texts was published in 1991. The artist's main works are exhibited at the Musée de Mont-de-Marsan. Some works are also on display at the Coubertin Foundation in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (Yvelines).