The Legacy of Merrywood: The Estate of Alan I and Dianne Kay

Literature

Waldemar-George and Dina Vierney, Aristide Maillol, New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, 1965, p. 110 (another example illustrated).

Note

A certificate of authenticity will be issued by Olivier Lorquin, Président de la Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol to the buyer of this sculpture.

Pomona was the Roman goddess of the flourishing and cultivation of fruit trees, gardens and orchards, most often depicted throughout art history holding baskets of fruit or a cornucopia. Early Modern French sculptor, Aristide Maillol, depicted Pomona several times throughout his career, as early as 1910, either nude or draped in a tunic, holding round, sensual fruits in both hands. A great admirer of gardens and garden statuary, Maillol was also greatly influenced by Classical and Renaissance art and literature in his work, in large part due to his life on the Mediterranean coast, steeped in Greek and Roman heritage. He was known to recite passages of Virgil by memory, and even illustrated editions of Virgil and Ovid’s writings in the 1920s and 30s.

Maillol’s graceful, peaceful Pomona shows his emphasis on a serene surface and emotional restraint that set him apart from his contemporaries. In his close study of this symbol of fertility and abundance, Maillol creates Pomona as a picture of tranquility, her frontal position and elegantly draped tunic speaking to a concentration on geometry, balance and form, a solidity and groundedness that exemplify the artist’s most notable works. While beginning his artistic career in many mediums, including painting, drawing and tapestry, Maillol quickly turned his attention to sculpture and dedicated his career to modeling beauty and serenity through the female form. Pomone à la Tunique, cast in the artist’s lifetime, is classical in subject and beauty, while revealing Maillol’s impact on Modernist realism, as he reduces the figure to its most stable and beautiful form.