Faun and Goats or Pastoral Art - study for the Monument to Debussy (Faune et chèvres - projet de monument à Debussy, grand)

From the small study Faun and Goats (1907) Bourdelle drew this pyramidal composition, which he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1910 and commended to the critic Arsène Alexandre of the Figaro. “I will have a bronze group, Pastoral Art [which] has more of the ruggedness of Roc Mountain and the somewhat pungent smell of animals.” To another journalist, he praised the “Antique balance” of the group “subjected to the bronze material: [...] the innocently feral faun [...] the goat quite fraternal with him”. This bronze received much acclaim at the Salon, and also charmed art lovers, who discovered it at the Galerie Montaigne on 2 May 1913, among sketches and preparatory work by all his “friends and fellow artists” – Edouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Henri Lebasque, Jacqueline Marval, Maurice Denis, etc. – with whom Bourdelle had worked at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In the daily Gil Blas, critic Louis Vauxcelles (who took the initiative for this exhibition), reported on the opening, “People should hurry to see this small group which, in the absence of a catalogue, I arbitrarily entitle, but they will easily recognise it: Man and Billy Goat.” Pastoral Art made a lasting impression on Maurice Denis, as in 1920 he officially commissioned Bourdelle to design a monument to Claude Debussy in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the composer's birthplace. Bourdelle agreed, but did not really follow up the commission. After his death, the project fell to Maillol, whom Denis had known for a long time.

Jérôme Godeau