LUCA MADRASSI (Tricesimo, Italy, 1848 - Paris,... Lot 92

LUCA MADRASSI (Tricesimo, Italy, 1848 - Paris, 1919). "Sleeper". Bronze sculpture. Signed on the base. Size: 58 x 29 x 49 cm. A young woman has fallen asleep reading a thick volume that now rests on her lap. A cherub surrounds her neck with his plump arms. It is a scene brimming with tenderness, and the effect is achieved thanks to the malleability of the bronze: the fine carvings on the chair, the young woman's pleated neck, the drape of her dress, the kinky hair.... Everything is rendered with a singular verism. Luca Madrassi, who had lived in France since his childhood, studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Cavalier. He later furthered his training at Bourdelle's studio and as Ronald Gower's first assistant, and finally made a study trip to Rome. Madrassi regularly exhibited his works at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français in Paris between 1881 and 1896, and also took part in the National Salon of 1896. However, he abandoned sculpture between then and 1914. Endowed with a fertile imagination, Madrassi produced a multitude of busts, statuettes, large sculptures and groups, mainly of mythological and allegorical subjects. He is currently represented in the Musées des Beaux-Arts de Poitiers and Sainte-Croix in France.