Aristide Maillol
French, 1861-1944

Study for Action in Chains, 1905
bronze - signed, inscribed, and numbered (1877/XXVII)
48 x 29 x 20 in.

SBMA, Bequest of Wright S. Ludington
1993.1.40

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

"I shall make ... a nude woman, it will be 'Liberty in Chains,' French sculptor Aristide Maillol is said to have declared upon beginning the memorial for which this powerful and commanding torso was made. The commission honored the 19th-century socialist hero Louis-August Blanqui, dubbed 'l'enfermé,' or 'the locked-up one,' for the 36 years Blanqui spent in prison for his actions against the bourgeois regime.

The academically trained Maillol rarely depicted movement in his celebrated female nudes. Yet the forceful twist of this forward thrusting torso expresses both dynamic motion and intense resistance. The cast-bronze sculpture is one of two studies for the final memorial . . . . . an oversized female figure, attempting to stride forward but restrained by hands bound behind the back. The proud determination expressed here captures the strength and purpose that must have driven the revolutionary Blanqui.

Using his wife as a model, Maillol reportedly finished this study in only ten days. Although he completed the final statue, now in the Tuilleries Gardens in Paris, in three months, authorities refused to permit it's unveiling for three years, until 1908. They claimed it was improper.

- SBMA INFORM #1745, 1/22/98