* HENRI LAURENS (1885-1954) The young girl, 1950 Proof in bronze with brown patina Signed with the monogram, justified 6/6 and bearing the founder's stamp "Valsuani, Cire perdue" on the terrace Height 38 cm - Length 23 cm - Depth 17.5 cm Bibliography (similar works): - Collectif, Henri Laurens, Exposition de la donation aux Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris, Paris, Ministère d'État Affaires Culturelles, 1967, n°103 - Werner Hofmann, Henri Laurens. Sculptures, Teufen (Switzerland), Édition Arthur Niggli, 1970, a similar print reproduced on page 211 - Collectif, Henri Laurens, catalogue of the retrospective at the Musée d'art moderne de la Communauté Urbaine de Lille Villeneuve-d'Ascq from 12 December 1992 to 12 April 1993, Paris, Réunion des Musées nationaux, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Communauté Urbaine de Lille, 1992, the copy belonging to the Musée national d'art moderne described under n°146 - Anisabelle Berès and Michel Arveilller, Henri Laurens, Paris, Galerie Berès, 2004, copy 5/6 described and reproduced on pages 234 and 235 Commentary: Born in Paris in 1885, Henri Laurens was a self-taught artist whose singular modern aesthetic established him as one of the most influential sculptors of the twentieth century. From a modest background, he began his career as a stonemason, before becoming involved in the cubist research of Braque, Gris and Picasso in the 1910s. Initially marked by the geometric rigour of this new plastic language, his sculptural work - using all types of material - evolved after the war towards more organic creations. Conceived in 1950, La jeune fille (The Young Girl), a bronze work some forty centimetres high, was produced at a time of artistic maturity when the previously compact forms were stretching out into space. The composition, with its combination of vertical thrusts and supple curves, conveys an inertia rather than a static pose; and although stylised, the female body retains a carnal presence thanks to the reflections of the brown patina animating the surface of the bronze. Like much of Laurens's sculpture, our figure evokes both strength and delicacy in an antagonistic way. Finally, in this work from the artist's last creative cycle, four years before his death, femininity is presented as a symbol of anchorage and balance, despite its dynamism. This aesthetic evolution is all the more apparent when compared with L'Aurore, a slightly larger bronze print now in the national collections at the Centre Pompidou. While the two female figures share a comparable pose, the modelling is treated with a radically different sensibility, and while for one the base acts as a rectangular support on which the subject rests, for ours, the young girl's body is rooted in it with symbolic depth. Printed in a limited edition of six by the Valsuani foundry, this work embodies an aesthetic whose sensitivity, technical mastery and modernity continue to appeal to all collections today. The Galerie Louise Leiris, with which Henri Laurens maintained a loyal and lasting relationship, played an essential role in the dissemination and recognition of his work, and was managed by the artist's grandson, thus directly perpetuating his artistic legacy.