Bourdelle, Antoine

(1861-1928)

   sculptor, painter

   one of the forerunners of 20th-century monumental sculpture, Antoine Bourdelle, the son of a cabinetmaker, was born in Montauban, where he was also educated. He went to Paris in 1855 and studied in the studio of Alexandre falguière. Later (1893-1903), he worked as an assistant to auguste rodin and, from that point, his career began to rise. In an heroic and moving style, he produced the monument to the fallen heroes of Montauban (1893 to 1902), in which he used naturalism to create rough and simplified forms with expressive distortion. He developed also a personal style, as he referred to Roman, Gothic, and archaic Greek sculpture (Tête d'Apollon, 1900; Héracles archer, 1900, inspired by the Egine pediment). In defining his basic structures (relief of the théâtre du Champs-Elysées, 1912), Bourdelle sought powerful rhythms, the effect of mass, and monumental character, but without abandoning dynamic expression. Of a lyrical temperament, he aimed for epic expression (monument to Alvear, in Buenos Aires, 1914-19; monument to Mickiewicz in Paris, 1928), but sometimes fell into pomposity. Bourdelle has, nonetheless, contributed to the freeing of modern sculpture from a strict naturalist style.