10 Interesting Facts about Bourdelle

One of the early 20th century’s three great sculptors

Following Rodin’s death, Bourdelle and Maillol became the two leading modern sculptors. Bourdelle dominated the field of monumental sculpture and received commissions from the Argentinian, Czech and Polish governments. His artistic career was at its peak during the Salon des Tuileries in 1923. One critic wrote, “No-one else can reach the pinnacle that he has achieved.” His death in 1929 was reported in the press. Journalists observed that “His sudden death is like the fall of a Titan” and “French sculpture is in mourning.”

**Anonyme, "Double portrait de Bourdelle et Rodin", s.d. (MBPH2116)**
*© droits réservés*

A master of monumental sculpture

After his work on the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Bourdelle became the sculptor of the monumental. He designed large-scale works, concise in their intent and form, conceived to inhabit the space they were intended to occupy. The dimensions of his works became colossal: Virgin of the Offering (1917–1922; 6 m), France (1925; 9 m), Monument to Alvear (1912–1926; 19 m with pedestal), Monument to Mickiewicz (1909–1928; 12.60 m), Montceau-les-Mines Monument (1919–1930; 11.50 m).

Bourdelle et Rhodia à côté de la Vierge à l'offrande — **Anonyme, "Bourdelle et Rhodia aux pieds de la Vierge à l'Offrande", s.d. (MBPH2459)**
*domaine public*

International recognition

During his lifetime, Bourdelle enjoyed fame beyond France’s borders. In 1909, he had a solo exhibition at the Manes Gallery in Prague. In 1913, he took part in the famous American exhibition, the Armory Show, and exhibited regularly in both Europe and America. In 1926, his colossal Monument to General Alvear was inaugurated in the heart of Buenos Aires (Argentina), where it still stands today. In 1928, Belgium paid him a great tribute with 218 works placed in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, a new building designed by the architect Victor Horta. The retrospective was opened by the Queen of Belgium and her daughter and attracted a record 20,000 visitors.

**Couverture du dossier toilé 13. "Cahier E Bruxelles Palais des Beaux-arts / Exposition Antoine Bourdelle 1928" (AB/D.13E)**
*musée Bourdelle*

A teacher who had over 500 students

Bourdelle taught at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1909 to 1929. In this free-thinking school in the heart of Montparnasse, he gave drawing and sculpture lessons around a nude model. Students, including many women, came from all over the world to attend his classes. Some of them, such as Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier, became famous in their own right.

**Anonyme, "Bourdelle et ses élèves à la Grande Chaumière", 1921 (MBPH2326)**
*droits réservés*

Hercules the Archer, a masterpiece the world over

Bourdelle was 50 years old when he finally became successful thanks to his Hercules the Archer statue, exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1910. It represents the Greek hero wielding his bow to shoot down the Stymphalian birds. Copies of this sculpture have been created in three versions and acquired by numerous museums in France and abroad. It is to be found on several continents, in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Korea, Italy, Japan, the USA and Sweden.

Héraklès archer d'Anvers — **Emile Antoine Bourdelle, "Héraklès Archer", Middelheim Museum (Belgique)**
*musée Bourdelle*

A passion for Antiquity

Bourdelle had a real passion for Antiquity. From the Head of Apollo (1898–1909) to Pallas Athena (1905), Hercules the Archer (1910) to Penelope (1905–1912) and the Dying Centaur (1914), Bourdelle found inspiration for his subjects in ancient mythology and drew innovative strength from “clean, uncluttered, unvarnished work”, free from Rodin's aesthetic, the rigours of academism, and the conventions of realism.
Rethinking masses and planes, subjecting them to a process of purification and alteration, Bourdelle's sculpture incorporates the principles of ancient art and gives shape to a new kind of beauty that critics initially denounced as “a return to the idol of the savage.” Paradoxically, the very movement of this return to the “origin” placed Bourdelle at the heart of the boldest explorations of modern art.

**Anonyme, "Antoine et Cléopâtre Bourdelle posant avec Rodolfo Alcorta dans l'atelier", 1917 (MBPV3692)**
*domaine public*

Bourdelle created and lived in what is now the Museum for more than 40 years

From 1885, Bourdelle rented a studio at 16 Impasse du Maine in Paris, within an artists' residence, among painters, sculptors, engravers and craftsmen. As the years went by and his reputation grew, he took over most of the studios, which he retained until his death. The Museum opened in 1949 in those very studios.

**Union des artistes, "Bourdelle, Stéphanie van Parys et Tante Rose dans l'appartement impasse du Maine", 1906-1907 (MBPH2637)**
*droits réservés*

Montauban, his home town

Bourdelle had a strong attachment to his home town, Montauban, where he liked to come to recharge his batteries and see his friends. It was here that he completed his first commission: the Tarn-et-Garonne 1870–1871 War Memorial, inaugurated in 1902. Bourdelle kept up an extensive correspondence with friends and acquaintances “back home” in Tarn-et-Garonne. The letters he exchanged were peppered with expressions from the local language, Occitan. He particularly appreciated the musicality of this dialect. He befriended two félibres (traditional Provençal poets), Prosper Estieu and Antonin Perbosc, who codified a written standard for the Occitan language and promoted it through literary journals to which Bourdelle subscribed.

**Anonyme, "Inauguration du Monument des Combattants de Bourdelle à Montauban", 1902 (MBPH4101)**
*droits réservés*

A passion for Beethoven

During his formative years in Toulouse, Bourdelle discovered the music of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Between 1902 and his death in 1929, he created some 80 sculptures and 20 drawings of the composer, with whom he identified. A “life mask” of Beethoven by the sculptor Franz Klein forms part of his personal collection.

**Attribué à Emile Antoine Bourdemme, "Plâtre de Beethoven aux grands cheveux de Bourdelle, dans l'atelier", 1889-1891 (MBPV208)**
*domaine public*

A little-known poet

Bourdelle was a poetry-lover who enjoyed immersing himself in the works of writers such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Adam Mickiewicz, Frédéric Mistral, Jean Moréas, Pierre de Ronsard, Emile Verhaeren and François Villon. His library contains more than 800 volumes of poetry. He also felt the need “to express in words what he [could] not confide in his art”, and put down on paper his poetic thoughts, feelings and meditations.