The ornamental arabesques of Art Nouveau exalted femininity in all its metamorphic states: flower-women by Maurice Denis, Alphonse Mucha and Pierre Bonnard, serpentine-women by Evard Munch and Gustav Klimt, and wave-women by Aristide Maillol and Lévy-Dhurmer. If the female form was not snaking, it was undulating, swirling and dancing like Jane Avril, whose appearances at the Divan Japonais and Moulin Rouge were captured by Toulouse-Lautrec in a frenetic stroke: “gracefully, lightly, a little madly; pale and skinny... she twirled this way and that, weightless, fed on flowers” (Paul Leclercq)... a poisonous flower whose neurotic charm was captured by Bourdelle. She was committed to Salpétrière psychiatric hospital, under Dr Charcot’s care, at a very young age and was part of the “clinical presentations” that the famous neurologist inflicted on his hysterical patients. Jane Avril found an escape through the aerial freedom of dance. Exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1900, this bust was quite a feat, given the technical mastery required to fire a bisque porcelain figure of this size. Bourdelle's homage to the legendary dancer of the Parisian café-concert scene is an erotic portrayal of the woman-siren, emerging from a wave or conch shell, inviting the viewer into her undulating, voluptuous – and fatal – embrace.
Jérôme Godeau
don't miss any news from the Bourdelle Museum.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter