Bourdelle working on the frescoes for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

A grandiose and multi-faceted work, Bourdelle worked tirelessly on the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées between 1910 and 1913 in the role of architect (finalising the design for the façade), sculptor (designing the reliefs) and painter. This photograph shows the artist, in his fifties, working on the frescoes in the dressing rooms. He is standing on a stepladder with pots of fresh mortar and pigments. But the image is a fiction, as it depicts a solitary artist. In reality, Bourdelle would be surrounded by numerous dedicated assistants, some of whom have been captured in other photographs of that time.

Colin Lemoine