Bronze
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/aristide-maillol-1555" aria-label="More by Aristide Maillol" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Aristide Maillol</a>
Venus with a Necklace
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1931
actions: postures and motions
adults
beauty
clothing and personal items
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
necklace
nudes
objects
people
standing
universal concepts
woman
<p>According to the artist, this sculpture was developed from another life-size nude entitled 'Summer', made in 1910. The model for this 'Venus', however, was a Spanish maid who came to work for Maillol at the end of the First World War. Maillol later recalled that he worked on the piece over a period of several years. A plaster version, complete with necklace, was exhibited in Paris in 1928 and a bronze cast was sold the same year. Named after the goddess of love, this sculpture epitomises Maillol's vision of feminine beauty.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
22 April 2002 – 25 August 2002
2002-08-25
22 April 2002 – 25 August 2002
2002-08-25
2002-04-22
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2002-04-22
Upright Figure
Collection based display
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
2003-06-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2003-06-21
International Modern Art
Collection based display
1 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2009-05-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2009-05-01
Wayne Hemingway
Collection based display
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
2018-06-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-06-05
Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One
Exhibition
Venus with a Necklace
object: 1753 × 610 × 400 mm, 165 kg
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1931
<p>According to the artist, this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> was developed from another life-size nude entitled 'Summer', made in 1910. The model for this 'Venus', however, was a Spanish maid who came to work for Maillol at the end of the First World War. Maillol later recalled that he worked on the piece over a period of several years. A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"><span>plaster</span></a> version, complete with necklace, was exhibited in Paris in 1928 and a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronze</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> was sold the same year. Named after the goddess of love, this sculpture epitomises Maillol's vision of feminine beauty.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Aristide Maillol</b><span> 1861-1944 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/maillol-venus-with-a-necklace-n04576" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04576</span></a> </span><b>Vénus au Collier</b><span> (Venus with a Necklace) </span><i>c.</i><span>1918-28 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'M' on upper surface of base and 'Alexis Rudier | Fondeur. Paris.' back of base</span>
<br/><span>Bronze, 69 1/8 x 24 x 15 3/4 (175.5 x 61 x 40)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1931</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
CAS (purchased from the artist 1931)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
RSA, Edinburgh, April-September 1935 (16); </span><i>Acquisitions of the CAS</i><span>, Tate Gallery, September-October 1946 (91); </span><i>Open Air Exhibition of Sculpture</i><span>, Battersea Park, London, May-September 1948 (24, repr.); </span><i>Sculpture in the Open Air</i><span>, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, June-September 1949 (35); </span><i>CAS: The First Fifty Years 1910-60</i><span>, Tate Gallery, April-May 1960 (190); </span><i>Twelve Views of Mankind</i><span>, MacRobert Centre Art Gallery, Stirling, March-April 1974 (works not numbered, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Alfred Dreyfus, 'Ein Besuch bei Maillol' in </span><i>Kunst und Künstler</i><span>, XXV, 1926-7, p.85; Judith Cladel, </span><i>Aristide Maillol: sa Vie - son Oeuvre - ses Idées</i><span> (Paris 1937), pp.112-14, plaster repr. pl.43; John Rewald, </span><i>Maillol</i><span>
(Paris 1939), p.165, plaster repr. pl.62; Pierre Camo, </span><i>Maillol, Mon Ami</i><span> (Lausanne 1950), pp.68-70, 87; Henri Frère, </span><i>Conversations de Maillol</i><span> (Geneva 1956), pp.223, 243-4, 280, 311, 326; Rolf Linnenkamp, </span><i>Aristide Maillol: erster kritischer Katalog zur Grossplastik</i><span> (Hamburg 1957), No.14, p.11; Waldemar George and Dina Vierny, </span><i>Aristide Maillol</i><span> (London 1965), pp.48, 222, detail of head repr. p.187 in colour; exh. catalogue </span><i>Modern Painting, Drawing and Sculpture collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr</i><span>., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., November 1971-January 1972, pp.459-66, 'Venus without a Necklace' repr. p.463; exh. catalogue </span><i>Künstlerfreunde um Arthur und Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler: Französische und Schweizer Kunst, 1890 bis 1940</i><span>, Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, September-November 1973, pp.17, 179, detail repr.</span>
<br/><i>Repr: Cahiers d'Art</i><span>, 1929, p.471; John Russell, </span><i>From Sickert to 1948</i><span> (London 1948), pl.51 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Maillol told Henri Frère that the head of the 'Venus' was made from a Spanish girl named Thérèse who came to him as a maid after the First World War and stayed for four years. Then he added that he spent altogether fifteen years on the 'Venus'. 'But that was because I did not have a very clear idea what I wanted. I started from a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a>, a very broad thing. I wanted to give the statue what there was in this drawing, this grandeur. I did not succeed. So I then made a Venus out of it. But it was not a Venus that I wanted to make ...' However, when Frère asked him later to confirm that it was begun from a drawing, he replied: 'No. The Venus was developed from a figure which I call "Summer". At first it was very successful. It was a magnificent torso, with the head bent forward. I had arranged it with a drapery; this made an incredible effect'. But although Rodin admired it, Maillol continued to work on it and later felt that he had spoilt it. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'Summer', which dates from 1910, is a life-size nude figure with the head tilted in the opposite direction (towards the viewer's left), and with her left arm extended forward and bent at the elbow, and her right arm stretched downwards to the side of the body. The pose of the arms and head is extremely awkward and has none of the fluent grace of the finished 'Venus', but the torso and legs are distinctly similar. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Maillol told John Rewald in 1938 that he executed this work about 1918-33. However, his memory clearly failed him on this point, for the 'Venus' with a necklace was exhibited in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"><span>plaster</span></a> at the Salon d'Automne in 1928, and Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler are recorded to have bought their <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronze</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> of it that same year. The necklace may have been added at a relatively late stage, partly to explain the position of the hands. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The following casts made in Maillol's lifetime, some with and some without the necklace, have been traced: </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>(a) Casts by the lost wax process (cire perdue) by C. Valsuani:</span>
<br/></p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Hahnloser collection, Winterthur, 'Venus with a Necklace' (not numbered).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, 'Venus without a Necklace' (not numbered).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>German private collection, 'Venus with a Necklace' (not numbered).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Kunsthaus, Zurich, 'Venus with a Necklace' (not numbered). </span></blockquote></blockquote><p><span>(b) Casts by the sand-mould process (fonte au sable) by Alexis Rudier:</span>
<br/></p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Tate Gallery, 'Venus with a Necklace' (not numbered).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>St Louis Art Museum, 'Venus with a Necklace' (2/5).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, 'Venus with a Necklace' (3/s). (The Musée has removed the necklace).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Kunsthalle, Bremen, 'Venus without a Necklace' (2/5).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. collection, St. Louis, 'Venus without a Necklace' (not numbered).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>National Gallery of Art, Washington, 'Venus without a Necklace' (not numbered). </span></blockquote></blockquote><p><span>Two further casts over and above this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> have been made since Maillol's death: </span>
<br/></p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>A cast of the 'Venus without a Necklace' published by Lucien Maillol for the town of Perpignan and cast by the sand-mould process by Georges Rudier. It belongs to the Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud at Perpignan, but has been placed out of doors on the Place de la Loge.</span>
<br/></blockquote>
<blockquote class="Normal"><span>A cast of the 'Venus without a Necklace' published by Dina Vierny and cast by the sand-mould process by Georges Rudier, to form part of her gift of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> by Maillol to stand in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. </span></blockquote></blockquote><p>
<br/><span>According to information received by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, in 1934-5 when the cast in their collection was purchased, there were to be altogether ten casts, five cast by Rudier, the five others by a different founder. This would seem to be borne out by the inscriptions '3/5' and (twice) '2/5', though on the other hand there appear to be no less than six casts made in his lifetime by the sand-mould process. Dina Vierny records that Maillol's editions are based on the principle of six bronze copies from each original plaster, and that if he wanted to have more than six copies executed, he would begin by making two plaster casts, one for each of his founders: one for the lost wax process, the other for sand-mould casting. This would suggest that there may also be two further casts made by C. Valsuani by the lost wax process. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Maillol also made a small number of casts of the torso, without arms, and of the head and the beginning of the throat which he published under the title 'Bust of Venus'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.466-8, reproduced p.466 </span>
<br/></p>
<p>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults beauty clothing and personal items emotions, concepts and ideas female necklace nudes objects people standing universal concepts woman