Emile-Antoine Bourdelle

The French sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) was a pupil of Auguste Rodin and worked primarily in bronze and marble. He sought to restore monumentality to sculpture through an eclectic borrowing from both ancient Greek and medieval sculpture. Concerned with the public function of sculpture, Bourdelle reintroduced sculpture to its traditional outdoor and architectural settings.

Emile-Antoine Bourdelle was born in Montauban, France, the birthplace of Ingres, on October 30, 1861. His early interest in sculpture was inspired by his carpenter-cabinetmaker father. In fact, many of Bourdelle's earliest sculptural projects were in wood. A bust of the painter Ingres, completed when Bourdelle was just 15, won him a scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the nearby city of Toulouse. While in Toulouse he studied under the sculptor Maurette and executed numerous portrait busts before leaving for Paris in 1884.

The first years in Paris brought Bourdelle some success. He won an honorable mention at the exhibition of the Salon des Artistes Francais of 1885 and a medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889. Bourdelle enrolled in the studio of the established master Alexandre Falguière for a brief period before working first with Jules Dalou and, later, as a pupil and assistant to Auguste Rodin between the years 1893 and 1908.

In 1888 Bourdelle began his great series of portrait busts and masques of Beethoven which occupied him until his death in 1929. Bourdelle's interest in Beethoven attested to his Romantic impulses, and the heads and masques show a clear affinity to the malleable, additive quality of Rodin's sculpture.

In 1893 Bourdelle entered Rodin's studio as a practitioner. Rodin seems to have exerted a certain influence on Bourdelle's early work, and the relationship between the two men was characterized by a mutual admiration. In fact, Rodin became one of Bourdelle's earliest and most enthusiastic admirers, but Bourdelle's spirit was far too eclectic to follow the style of one master. His sculpture was soon to take its own course. Bourdelle had already begun studying the monumental sculpture of both François Rude and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux as well as the great traditions of ancient Greek sculpture, particularly the Archaic, and medieval religious sculpture. Such an eclectic borrowing from the past accounted for the range of styles that characterized Bourdelle's sculpture—at times spirited and Romantic as in his Beethoven bronzes and, at other times, taut and severe like his Hercules, the Archer (1900-1907). In each case Bourdelle's bold expressive energy shows through the surface.

Bourdelle's study of the great ages of monumental sculpture led to his lifelong concern for the public function of sculpture and its relationship to an outdoor setting. In 1893 he began his studies for the Monument to the Defendersof Montauban, which commemorated the noble resistance of the people of Montauban in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Considered his first masterpiece, the monument took eight years to finish. Elevated on a high pedestal in a public square, the figures possess at once an archaic severity and tautness combined with a powerful expressiveness that conveys the heroic struggle of a united people. Bourdelle's first masterpiece was part of a general trend in the late 19th century that favored public monuments memorializing those who lost their lives for France and the newly established Third Republic.

Bourdelle's most important commission came from Argentina in 1912. His Monument to General Alvear was executed between 1912 and 1923, but was not placed in the public square in Buenos Aires until 1925. This equestrian monument depicts General Alvear, a hero from the Argentinian war of independence of 1814-1815, riding atop a tall plinth flanked by four allegorical figures representing the civic virtues Strength, Victory, Liberty, and Eloquence.

The traditional bonds that linked sculpture with architecture also interested Bourdelle. In 1913 Bourdelle received another major commission to decorate the Champs Elysées theater with sculptural frieze panels depicting various aspects of the dramatic arts—Tragedy, Comedy, Dance, Music, and the Muses. All were couched in the style of Archaic Greek sculpture, but the static element of Greek sculpture, so loved by Bourdelle's contemporary Maillol, was enlivened by Bourdelle's fascination with the representation of movement and energy through the expressive use of line and straining bodies. It has even been suggested that these reliefs were inspired by the dance of Isadora Duncan. Moreover, in his panels entitled The Muses, Bourdelle's striding figures seem to foreshadow some of the figures seen in the paintings from Picasso's classical phase of the 1920s.

With Bourdelle's Virgin of the Offering (1922) one immediately detects his fascination with monumental religious sculpture. Raised on a hill above Niederbruch in Alsace, the Virgin of the Offering is a colossal work some 20 feet tall. Bourdelle took a sacred subject and imbued it with a nobility and grandeur rarely surpassed in sculpture.

Never one to actively pursue official honors, Bourdelle saw himself more akin to the Medieval craftsman. Nevertheless, he was honored in 1924 when he was made a commander of the Legion of Honor. Though official honors came late to Bourdelle, his influence was widespread.

Emile-Antoine Bourdelle died outside Paris at Vésinet on October 1, 1929. Two years later, in 1931, a major retrospective of his work was held in Paris. The Musée Bourdelle, where many of Bourdelle's sculptures can be seen, was opened in Paris in 1949.

Further Reading

Much information on Bourdelle can be found in museum catalogues if the reader is able to read French. No monograph on Bourdelle exists in English. Useful background sources include W. J. Strachan, Towards Sculpture (1976), and A. M. Hammacher, The Evolution of Modern Sculpture (1969). □

Bourdelle, Émile-Antoine (1861–1929). French sculptor, born in Montauban, the son of a cabinet-maker. His family was very poor, but in 1876 he was given a grant by the town of Montauban to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. From there he went on to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, 1884–6, and he worked as an assistant to Rodin, 1893–1908. His first major independent commission (1897–1902) was a monument commemorating the Franco-Prussian War for Montauban (now in the Place Bourdelle). It conveyed the brutality of war without the conventional heroic trappings expected of such monuments and attracted more abuse than praise; Rodin, however, described it as ‘an epic work, one of the great achievements of sculpture today'. Bourdelle's first unqualified public success was the bronze Heracles the Archer (1909, various casts exist; the Bourdelle Museum in Paris has an example, as it does of virtually all his work). After it was exhibited to great acclaim in 1910, he was generally regarded as the outstanding sculptor in France apart from Rodin himself.

Bourdelle's work has been somewhat overshadowed by his association with Rodin, but he was already an accomplished artist when he began working for him and he developed an independent style; he revered his master, but said ‘all my tendencies and my experiences as well run counter to the laws that rule his art'. His energetic, rippling surfaces owe much to Rodin, but his flat rhythmic simplifications of form, recalling Romanesque art, are highly personal. He was particularly interested in the relationship of sculpture to architecture, and his reliefs for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–13), inspired by the dancing of Isadora Duncan, are among his finest works. Bourdelle had many other prestigious public commissions and he made numerous portraits of distinguished contemporaries. He also achieved great distinction as a teacher at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière from 1909 until his death. One of his students there, Vera Mukhina, described him as ‘A little Nibelung, shorter than myself, with an enormous shining high forehead, thick, bushy brows and a black wedge-shaped beard'. He was a talented painter and draughtsman as well as a sculptor. His house and studio in Paris have been converted into a museum of his work; the first part opened in 1961 to mark the centenary of his birth.

Bourdelle, Émile-Antoine (b Montauban, 30 Oct. 1861; d Le Vésinet, nr. Paris, 1 Oct. 1929). French sculptor, the son of a cabinetmaker, from whom he received his first experience of carving. In 1876 he began to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse, from where he won a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1884. However, he shortly left the school and worked for a while with Jules Dalou before becoming Rodin's chief assistant from 1893 to 1908. Bourdelle's work has been somewhat overshadowed by his association with Rodin (whom he revered), but he was already an accomplished artist when he started working for him and developed an independent style. His energetic, rippling surfaces owe much to Rodin, but his flat rhythmic simplifications of form, recalling Romanesque art, are more personal. He was particularly interested in the relationship of sculpture to architecture, and his reliefs for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1912) are among his finest works. Bourdelle had many other prestigious public commissions and also achieved great distinction as a teacher. From about 1910 he was generally regarded as the outstanding sculptor in France apart from Rodin himself. He was also a talented painter and draughtsman. His house and studio in Paris have been converted into the Musée Bourdelle, opened in 1961 to mark the centenary of his birth.

Bourdelle, Émile-Antoine (1861–1929). French sculptor, born at Montauban, the son of a cabinetmaker, from whom he received his first experience of carving. In 1876 he began to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse, from where he won a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1884. However, he soon left the school and worked for a while with Jules Dalou before becoming Rodin's chief assistant from 1893 to 1908. Bourdelle's work has been somewhat overshadowed by his association with Rodin (whom he revered), but he was already an accomplished artist when he started working for him and developed an independent style. His energetic, rippling surfaces owe much to Rodin, but his flat rhythmic simplifications of form, recalling Romanesque art, are more personal. He was particularly interested in the relationship of sculpture to architecture, and his reliefs for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1912) are among his finest works. Bourdelle had many other prestigious public commissions and also achieved great distinction as a teacher. From about 1910 he was generally regarded as the outstanding sculptor in France apart from Rodin himself. He was also a talented painter and draughtsman. His house and studio in Paris have been converted into the Musée Bourdelle, opened in 1961 to mark the centenary of his birth.

Émile Antoine Bourdelle , 1861–1929, French sculptor; son of a cabinetmaker of Montauban. He went to Paris in 1884, where he studied successively under Falguière, Dalou, and Rodin. Bourdelle differed sharply from Rodin in his preoccupation with the relation of sculpture to architecture. Seeking his inspiration in archaic Greece and the Gothic, he achieved his greatest success in heroic and monumental works such as Hercules, of which there is a cast in the Metropolitan Museum; his colossal Virgin of Alsace; his bas-reliefs for the Théâtre des Champs Élysées; and his monument to Americans who died in World War I (Pointe de Grave). He is also noted for his numerous portrait heads.

Bibliography: See study by I. Jianu (1966).