Seraphim Nikolaevich SUDBININ (1870-1944) - Lot 218

Lot 218
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Result : 61 000EUR
Seraphim Nikolaevich SUDBININ (1870-1944) - Lot 218
Seraphim Nikolaevich SUDBININ (1870-1944) Bust of a woman with braided hair, circa 1910 - White marble Signed and engraved "Soudbinine Paris on the right base 40 x 20 x 26 cm (small chips, some stains) Presumed portrait of ballerina Anna Pavlova. To bid on this lot, please contact our Hôtel des Ventes on +33 (0)2 97 21 22 98. Condition report available on request. The authenticity of this sculpture has been kindly confirmed by Dr. Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya, Curator of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. EXPERT: Marc OTTAVI Work on view at the expert's office at 12, rue Rossini 75009 Paris - Tel: +33 (0)1 42 46 85 18 Born in Russia, Séraphin Soudbinine turned to acting in his teens. Between 1881 and 1903, he performed regularly in theaters in his native Nizhny Novgorod, Vilnius and Moscow. At the same time, the artist taught himself drawing and sculpture. It was during his first trip to Paris in the summer of 1902 that he decided to leave the theater and devote himself entirely to sculpture. Performances and ballets would inspire him throughout his career: among his first works is a bust of Constantin Stanislavski, the famous stage director. In 1904, thanks to a grant from patron Savva Morozov, Soudbinine settled permanently in Paris and began exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne and Salon des Indépendants in 1905. His meeting with Auguste Rodin in 1906, through the composer Skriabine, played a decisive role in his career. Soudbinine was hired by Rodin as a practitioner to cut marble, mold, polish and cast bronzes. Nearly 70 collaborators contributed to the creation of what critics ironically dubbed the "Rodin factory", which received orders from all over Europe. In the marble department, Soudbinine worked alongside Jules Desbois, Camille Claudel, Antoine Bourdelle, François Pompon, Charles Despiau, Lucien Schnegg... Although the work lasted only a year, Soudbinine worked with Rodin until the master's death in 1917. During the first decade of the 20th century, Soudbinine created a series of busts in marble and bronze, including those of Auguste Rodin, opera singers Fiodor Chaliapine and Léonid Sobinov, writer Maxime Gorky, Grand Duke Michel Alexandrovitch of Russia... In 1913, he created marble busts and statuettes of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, best known for her interpretation of the Dying Swan in Tchaikovsky's ballet. In our bust, Soudbinine adopts Rodin's practice of leaving the terrace unfinished in order to enhance the expressiveness of the figure emerging from it. The compact mass of the base is softened by the curved shape of the beginning of the shoulder and the raised collar of the garment. The sophisticated hair, both braided and voluminous, cascades down to the marble terrace, where rough and refined blend. The marked features of the face - high cheekbones, aquiline nose, clear forehead, strong chin - accentuate the hieratic, impassive appearance of our bust. Her half-closed eyes evoke both dream and meditation. In the 1920s and 1930s, the sculptor was a regular guest in the United States, where he created a suite of decorative screens for the Solomon R. Guggenheim residence in collaboration with Jean Dunand. In the 1940s, during the bombing of Paris, Soudbinine's studio on rue Broca in Montparnasse was completely destroyed. The artist never recovered from this and worked mainly with the Manufacture de Sèvres during the last years of his career. Today, Soudbinine's works can be found at the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée Rodin, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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