Metropolitan Beethoven (Beethoven, métropolitain - avec socle)

Emile Antoine BOURDELLE (1861, Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, France) - 1929, Le Vésinet (Yvelines, France))

  • 1902
  • Bronze, cast iron from the Godard Foundry
  • 102 cm x 55 cm x 50.2 cm
  • MBBR563
  • Rhodia Dufet Bourdelle Bequest, 2002

The story goes that, as a very young man, Bourdelle was struck by his resemblance to a portrait of Beethoven. From 1888 until his death in 1929, the sculptor kept returning to the obsessing figure of the composer, in whom he saw an alter ego. Created in clay, plaster and bronze, his 80 representations of Beethoven are all expressive variations on the theme of creative genius. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was the first museum to acquire a bronze copy of this work, which now bears its name. Metropolitan Beethoven is clearly one of the most masterful figures in the series, showing a determination to construct, through planes and reflections, the inner symphony of “this deaf man who hears God” (Bourdelle, letter to Karl Boès). Beneath the full hair, the frontal aspect of the face, with its rounded forehead and closed eyes, is set on a plinth, which rests on a polyhedral base. The sacredness of the effigy is reinforced by the maxim borrowed from the Master: "I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for men."

Jérôme Godeau


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