*PAUL LANDOWSKI (1875-1961) COMMEMORATIVE PORTRAIT OF SUN YAT SEN Green patina bronze proof, signed and numbered 2/8. Marked and stamped "Susse fondeur Paris" on the back. A SCULPTURE BY PAUL LANDOWSKI, SUN YAT SEN, BRONZE WITH A GREEN PATINA. HEIGHT 90 CM (35 7/16 IN.) - WIDTH 36,7 CM (14 7/16 IN.) - PROF. 41,8 CM (16 7/16 IN.) The buyer will receive a certificate of authenticity from the Landowski joint owners. Sun Yat Sen is shown seated in a Chinese-style armchair, with armrests, seat and legs outlined with spiral foliage, the back decorated with flowers and foliage. The subject is depicted wearing a long Chinese robe, in a hieratic frontal position, with his hands placed in front of him on a calligraphy scroll on his lap, inscribed with the phrase Guomin zhangfu tian guo da gang, "Founding principles of the government of the Republic". The whole rests on a high, quadrangular plinth inspired by the structure of the Antiquity, each side decorated with bas-reliefs representing six important episodes in the life of the politician, the upper and lower parts of the plinth highlighted by a frieze of ovals. The six scenes are divided into two main ones, at the front and back, and four in pairs on the sides. They show respectively : on the front, Sun Yat Sen's compassion for the sick, evoking the doctor who treated the poorest people on a voluntary basis ; . On the back, Sun Yat Sen, mandated by the Assembly, referring to his election as provisional President of the Republic on 29 December 1911 by the representatives of the seventeen provinces meeting in Nanjing; . To the left of the subject, left-hand panel, Overseas propaganda, recalling the many trips Sun Yat Sen made all over the world, from 1894 and for eighteen years, to promote revolutionary ideas, raise funds and rally overseas Chinese to his cause; right-hand panel, Debates on the Revolution, the Jury League (Tongmenhui), a republican and nationalist movement he founded in 1905 to bring together all the revolutionary forces in China and abroad ; . To the right of the subject, left-hand panel, The Repression of Yuan Shikai, recalling the second revolution Sun Yat Sen launched, this time against Yuan Shikai, who had forced him to cede power and had even attempted to restore the empire; right-hand panel, Awakening the People, a task to which Sun Yat Sen had devoted himself in his writings and in his lectures at the Guangzhou Normal University in 1924, setting out in particular his doctrine of the "Three Principles of the People". About the work This bronze, created in 2017 from an original plaster cast created in 1928 and kept at the Paul Landowski Museum in Boulogne Billancourt, is a scale model of the marble statue in the Mausoleum of Sun Yat Sen in Nanjing, commissioned from the French sculptor Paul Landowski by the Guomindang Executive Committee, which contacted him in 1927 through the Chinese Embassy in France. Paul Landowski based his work on documentation and instructions from the Guomindang, and also had Sun Yat Sen's son, Sun Fo, pose for him. He often visited the sculptor's studio in Boulogne, and made a bust of him. The design and production of the work were not without some debate between the artist and his commissioners, the latter wishing to give the politician a more European look, whereas Paul Landowski thought it more appropriate for him to be dressed in Chinese style. In this respect, he prevailed, dressing Sun Yat Sen in a long robe and wearing neutral shoes, neither Chinese nor European. The themes depicted on the historiated plinth were also the subject of lengthy discussions. In the end, the result was much appreciated by the Guomindang Executive Committee and Sun Yat Sen's widow, Sun Qingling. The final marble sculpture, almost 5 metres high, was installed in the ceremonial hall of Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum in the Purple Mountains (Zijin shan), east of Nanjing, during a grand ceremony on 12 November 1930, the anniversary of Sun's birth. Paul Landowski's diary, which he kept for almost fifty years until 1954, and his correspondence with Chiang Chao, Consul General of the Chinese Republic in Paris, among others, show that the artist went on to produce several bronze or plaster reductions, either remaining in France or destined for Chinese political figures, including one in bronze for Sun Fo and a plaster cast offered to the Consul. In 2016, to mark the 150th anniversary of Sun Yat Sen's birth, the joint heirs of Paul Landowski, who manage the artist's work, decided to have a bronze proof made from the original plaster kept at the Paul Landowski museum in Boulogne-Billancourt. It has commissioned the Susse foundry to produce it. French law authorises eight original bronzes, numbered 1 to 8, and four artist's proofs intended for heirs or national museums. Two bronzes have been made to date, including our bronze, which bears the number 2/8. Proof no. 1/8, with a different patina, medal and not green, was sold by the Ader firm in the sale of 11 June 2018, lot no. 77. About Paul Landowski (1875-1961) This great sculptor, who was also a great scholar, writer and poet, with an abundance of sculptural work, was, perhaps somewhat summarily, classed among the academic artists who inherited the formalism of the Third Republic. However, his work and the reading of his diary show that he can in no way be confined to a stereotyped academicism, which the artist totally rejected. He was even compared to Rodin, whose tormented expressionism he did not appreciate, preferring a more sober, often grandiose realism, as some of his official works attest. It is undeniable, however, that his training and career were academic: he was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1900, became director of the Villa Médicis in 1933 and then of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1937, and received numerous official commissions both in France and abroad. Paradoxically, Paul Landowski is relatively unknown to the general public today, even though some of his works are world-renowned. We need only mention the very famous Christ the Redeemer on the Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro (1926-1931) and the Sainte Geneviève on the Pont de la Tournelle in Paris (1924-1928), as well as the thirty or so works that dot the French capital and others around the world. However, the real Paul Landowski is undoubtedly to be found in the dream that lingered in the back of his mind all his life, and accompanied him throughout his career as a sculptor: the colossal project of a Temple of Man, a sort of ode celebrating the great humanist ideas, transcribed into matter in the form of a vast basilica. This project, for which he was supported and encouraged, was never completed, although he did produce life-size elements (notably the central part of the Wall of Legends, now in the Musée Landowski in Boulogne-Billancourt) and scaled-down versions, as well as models. Although unfinished, this dream was certainly a thread that ran through the artist's entire life. About Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925) This physician, great revolutionary and politician, better known in China by his nickname Sun Zhongshan, had a considerable influence on the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, of which he was the first - albeit brief - president (29 December 1911-10 March 1912). As a result, he has a unique status among twentieth-century Chinese leaders. He is considered the "Father of Modern China" by the West, the "Forerunner of the Revolution" by the People's Republic of China, and the "Father of the Nation" by the Republic of China in Taiwan. Exiled to Japan during the reign of Yuan Shikai, he later returned to lead several governments based in southern China, which tried in vain to reunify a country destabilised by warlords. Reunification was not achieved until 1928, by Chiang Kai-shek, his successor at the head of the Guomingdang. Sun Yat Sen was also known for his political philosophy known as "The Three Principles of the People", namely nationalism, the rights of the people and the livelihood of the people. His widow, Song Qingling, tried to carry on his work until the end of her life in 1981. Respected, she played a small political role in Beijing, and was the only woman to be given the title of "Honorary President of the People's Republic of China" just before her death in May 1981.