BOURDELLE, Émile-Antoine

Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne 1861 - Le Vésinet, Yvelines 1929

Maker: Susse

Pénélope

Penelope

1909

bronze, dark green patina

statue

Dimensions (HxWxD): 47 ¹⁄₈ x 17 x 14 ³⁄₄ in.

left side of base: monogrammed
lower left, back of base: Susse Freres Fondeurs Paris

Acc. No.: AP 1969.03

Credit Line: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Photo credit: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain

Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum

www.kimbellart.org

Provenance

• Acquired by Gaston Baheux [died, Paris, 1968], possibly directly from the artist,
• sold by André Pacitti on behalf of Baheux's heirs to Pintura Establishment, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
• 1969, purchased through Pintura Establishment, Vaduz, Liechtenstein by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth

Bibliography

• Museum's website, 29 April 2010
• 1981 Handbook
  Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection, 1981, p. 167, repr.
• 2003 Potts
  Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection, Editor: Timothy Potts, Director, 2003, p. 143, repr.

Related works

• Taller version (H. 96 in): casts in Paris, Musée Bourdelle : Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum; Jerusalem Museum; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Canberra, Australian National Gallery; Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art.

Comment

• Museum's website, 29 April 2010:
  Bourdelle is generally acclaimed as the most important heir to Rodin, in whose studio he was an assistant from 1893 until 1908. Upon his separation from Rodin, however, he sought direct inspiration in the work of the famous Neoclassical painter Ingres, a native of the sculptor’s own hometown of Montauban. Bourdelle sculpted a portrait of Ingres in 1908 while developing Penelope, the pose of which, based on ancient Roman models, was among Ingres’s favorites.
  
  In Bourdelle’s earliest versions, Penelope held a spindle to identify her as the steadfast wife of Odysseus, who, in Homer’s epic account of the Trojan War, endures the long absence of her warrior husband by weaving a shroud. In the fully evolved, half-scale Kimbell version, the figure’s identity as Penelope is manifest only from the ancient Greek costume and meditative pose. Both the elimination of the spindle prop and the pose with arms brought close to the body contribute to the sculpture’s columnlike silhouette. Indeed, the heavy woolen pleats of Penelope’s chiton are like the fluting on a Doric column.

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