Penelope: a pillar of longing made flesh

At the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1912, Bourdelle's Penelope brought about an artistic revolution: the figure of this living pillar subverted the expectations of ideal Beauty and upended the art of proportions.

For seven years, Bourdelle had wordked on this masterpiece of amorous longing. Its symbolic charge is especially weighty: indeed, for his Penelope, Bourdelle borrowed the features of two women who loved him. We may recognise the generous curves of his first wife, Stéphanie Van Parys, and the posture of his student, Cléopâtre Sevastos, the new muse who would soon become his second wife. The tinu head, gracefully tilted towards a folded arm, exudes a raw and quiet sensuality, as does the subtle curve of the hip breathing lige into the folds of the fabric, like flutes on a column: "... A thousand folds of woolen cloth, [...] punctuating her lower back, her round column-like thighs and, to cap it all, her strong hips made of soft lines." (Bourdelle, "Les cariatides du vent" [The Wind Caryatids"], 1911)

The monument-like quality of this animated mass is heightened by the geometric plinth from which it rises. Neither accessory not display stand, this immaculate pedestal plays an integral part in the artwork's architecture, the modernity of which Picasso's "insatiable eye" understood.