Bourdelle in the studio, beside the Dying Warrior

This eloquent photograph taken in Bourdelle's studio shows the unfired clay of the Dying Warrior, one of the four figures in the Monument to the Fallen, the Fighters and the Defenders of Tarn-et-Garonne 1870-1871. Bourdelle is standing in his jacket, meekly facing this impressive pile of fissured clay, topped by a screaming, gargoyle-like figure. Showing pedestals, rudimentary bases, old paintings and furniture, the photograph reveals the material and spatial reality of the studio where the limited space was already full of objects.

Colin Lemoine