‘Jeune fille assise, mains croisées’ is an extraordinary rare example of a large-scale marble by the Spanish sculptor Baltasar Lobo and is one of the largest and most beautiful to...
‘Jeune fille assise, mains croisées’ is an extraordinary rare example of a large-scale marble by the Spanish sculptor Baltasar Lobo and is one of the largest and most beautiful to have come onto the open market. This elegant seated figure is characteristic of Lobo’s sensual representation of the female body, which he would return to repeatedly throughout his career.
In 1939 Lobo escaped Franco’s Fascist regime and quickly found himself immersed in the Parisian avant-garde and the vibrant artistic community of Montparnasse. Establishing himself as a pivotal member of the School of Paris, Lobo forged particularly strong friendships with Picasso and Henri Laurens during this period, for whom he worked as an assistant.
Crafted from a unique piece of marble from the coveted region of Mijas in southern Spain, the gentle stippled surface of ‘Jeune fille assise, mains croisées’ has been carefully worked to suggest the details of the woman’s hair tied neatly behind her back and cascading in waves, which echo the contours of her body. In this delicate treatment of the figure, Lobo carefully navigates the tightrope between naturalism and abstraction as he reduces the body to an essential language of curves in marble. Inspired particularly by Modernist sculptors such as Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi and Joan Miró, Lobo used the silhouette of the female form to explore abstraction. However, while Lobo teetered on the very edge of an abstract language, he maintained a constant connection to the balance and femininity of naturalism. In this case the elegant and restrained position of the female figure, with her limbs folded snugly against the body and hands clasped in her lap, evokes the same timeless serenity found in the presence of religious icons or relics. The simplicity and commanding presence of this sculpture also reveals the influence of primitive forms and pre-classical Iberian sculpture in Lobo’s work, which he shared with his compatriot Pablo Picasso.
Despite the political turmoil which defined his early career, Lobo’s deeply poetic sculptures earned him international recognition and critical acclaim. A permanent museum dedicated to his work was established in his home town of Zamora and in 1984 he was awarded the Spanish National Prize for Sculpture. Lobo’s sculptures can now be found in major international collections including the Centro d'Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Tokyo National Museum; Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg; National Gallery, Prague; State Gallery, Stuttgart and Fine Arts Museum, Bilbao.
Scharf Collection, Obersdorf (acquired directly from the artist in 1976) Salis & Vertes, Salzburg Private Collection, Salzburg (acquired in 1998)
Literature
This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue raisonné of sculptures by Baltasar Lobo currently being prepared by Galería Freites under archive no.7610 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Alejandro Freites and dated 18 April 2018. A copy of this certificate of authenticity is recorded in the files of Galería Freites under no.18.138
J.-E. Muller & V. Bollmann-Müller, Lobo, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté, La Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, 1985, illus. no.430