Bourdelle, Self-Portrait Without Arms, statuette (Bourdelle, autoportrait sans bras, statuette)

Around 1907-1908, Antoine Bourdelle donned the corduroy of workers and craftsmen, styling himself as a working-class artist, proud of his origins, for whom hard work is a virtue. Self-Portrait Without Arms demonstrates the symbolic importance of the corduroy suit, which he represents right down to the trousers fastened at the ankles with three buttons. In a subtle mise-en-abyme, Albert Harlingue photographed Bourdelle wearing his suit, standing next to his self-portrait, in the studio (MBPH1932).

The portrait also shows the physical characteristics mentioned by the artist's contemporaries, in particular his faun-like appearance: short, stocky build, head down like a ram, his “uncultivated beard”, his large forehead “rounded like a dome”, his “eyes full of dreams”, and his gaze from below.

This armless figure is reminiscent of Rodin's The Walking Man, the large model of which had just triumphed at the 1907 Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. At the same time, Matisse removed the arms from his Serf, exhibited at the 1908 Salon d'Automne (the first version, with arms, had been presented at the 1904 Salon d'Automne).

It may seem surprising for a sculptor to portray himself without arms, as if prevented from working. Yet the opposite is true. Bourdelle depicts himself reflecting, as in several drawn self-portraits, including one entitled The Thinker, in which he is walking with his arms crossed behind his back (MBD6904). The absence of arms focuses the viewer's attention on the brow and the reflective expression on the face.

As Bourdelle often told his pupils, to create, one must develop one's mind, because it is the mind that directs the hand: “It is not the thumb that creates the work, but intelligence. […] the skilful hand is a misfortune if the mind does not say to it, ‘Start again and listen.’” He would often return to this theme: “Absorb the idea that temperament is a fine word, but it is an empty one; it does not exist any more than a helping hand, you understand; it is the mind alone that counts”
Bourdelle, has therefore depicted himself in the process of creating: in the essential phase of mental conception of the work.

Valérie Montalbetti Kervella