GALERIE DINA VIERNY

On the advice of Matisse and Jeanne Bucher, Dina Vierny, Maillol’s last model, decided to open a gallery in 1947.
She moved to 36 rue Jacob, a former “bougnat” transformed into a wooden case by Auguste Perret.

The gallery became famous in Paris thanks to a first Maillol exhibition, and then asserted itself with exhibitions of Rodin, Henri Laurens, Matisse… Dina Vierny met Serge Poliakoff and organized his first important exhibition in 1951. This was followed by exhibitions of the Vollard suite of Picasso, Kandinsky, Pougny, Dufy, Doucet, Charchoune, Gilioli, Couturier or Zitman. The gallery owner then became enamored with the modern primitives and exhibited Bauchant, Bombois, Eve, Desnos, Racoff, Rimbert, Séraphine de Senlis and Vivin. In the early 70s, she travels to the Soviet Union where she discovers Kabakov, Boulatov, Yankilevsky and Oscar Rabin. She smuggled their works out of Russia and organized the famous exhibition Russian Avant-Garde – Moscow 73.

Always driven by this same eclecticism, the gallery was then directed by Olivier Lorquin, son of Dina Vierny, who left́ his place to his two sons, Pierre and Alexandre Lorquin, in January 2021. The latter are now reorienting the gallery’s strategy towards impressionism, modern and post-war art, diversifying the list of artists.

Conceived in 1930 and cast in bronze by Alexis Rudier in an edition of 6. The present work is number 1 from the edition and was cast before 1939. The patina has been restored.

Provenance

• Alexis Rudier, Malakoff
• Estate of the artist
• European Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1947; sale: Sotheby’s London, June 24, 1996, lot 31)
• Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris (acquired at the above sale)

Literature

• J. Rewald, Maillol, Paris, 1939, pl. 130, illustration of the plaster
• J. Rewald, Aristide Maillol, Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York (travelling exhibition), 1958-60, p. 38, n°37, illustration of another cast
• Hommage à Aristide Maillol, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, 1961, p. 35, n°84, illustration of another cast

Exhibitions

• Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rondom Rodin, 1939, no. 209, illustrated
• New York, Marlborough Gallery, Inc, Maillol and America, 2004, no. 8, another cast illustrated p. 45
• La Pedrera, Fundació Caixa Catalunya, Aristide Maillol, 2009-10, another cast illustrated p. 216
• Paris, Galerie Dina Vierny, Accrochage d’été, 2022, another cast exhibited