Ossip Zadkine - Les trois belles

1926

53 x 41 x 22 cm

Bronze

Edition of 5 + 2 EA

 

More about this bronze sculpture

Ossip Zadkine - Les trois belles or Les trois grâces was conceived by sculptor Ossip Zadkine in 1926.

Sylvaine Lecombre writes about this sculpture: In 'Les Trois Grâces', the gaps allow the figures to unfold freely in space. Zadkine did not feel comfortable with Cubism until he was able to apply its formal principles to his own subjects and artistic vision. In this group of three intimately connected women, the concave sections, the sudden breaks in the joints, the flat surface of a face all lose their severity. The aggressive aspects of Cubism are softened, and its mechanical aspects are reclaimed by a sense of humanity

Zadkine's sculptural oeuvre is shaped by a preoccupation with classical antiquity. His innate fascination with these early examples of sculpture often led him to explore mythological subjects, such as in the present work employing the Greek motif of the ‘Three Graces’. Groups of figures are a common recurring element with Zadkine and appear in many variations. He revisited the subject of the ‘Three Graces’, for example, in 1950 in a modified and slightly larger version.