Waclaw SZYMANOWSKI

BODY, after 1903
Bronze, height 48 cm
Signed: W. Szymanowski
Study for this sculpture exhibited : Krakow TPSP, 1903; TZSP, Warsaw, 1903, Dusseldorf 1904 and reproduced : Tygodnik Ilustrowany, 1903, no. 22 pp. 424
Lit. by Waclaw Szymanowski, op. by Hanna Kotkowska-Bareja, National Museum in Warsaw, 1981, no. 59, ill.
Cast made in France probably in quantity of 4 pieces. This one is probably the only one preserved. The sculpture depicts a naked young man carrying a great burden in terrible hardship. It was created during Szymanowski's Paris period. Starting from the naturalistic tendencies of the Munich period, the author created a symbolist composition. The form here is subject to generalization, a flowing Art Nouveau contour and sketchy treatment of the mass appear. The theme of the nude under the burden of carrying a burden had already occupied the artist in the previous decade in the series "Cariatids." Complementary to "Burden," also depicting a man in the drudgery of everyday existence, a study of movement, and are "Reaper" and Wind."
Asking price 40000
Estimate 50000 - 60000