Map Ref.5. (Item a) The Winter Garden. (Note that the raised knee of "La montage" used to reflect the triangular line of Mount Ainslie in the background. This view has now been obscured by foliage.)
Aristide Maillol originally worked on the pose of a similar figure, nearly forty years before the Gallery's work. One of these works is called, "The Mediterranean" 1902, of which there are several versions, such as the marble version in the collection of the Musée Nationale d'Art, Paris.
The female nude seems about to arise from the block beneath. The raised elbow and knee create a satisfying balance of form and void. The weight and tension of the figure is transferred through the right arm and leg to the base. The upraised hand and windswept hair suggest a relationship with the heavy, lower leg.
Maillol originally modelled this work in clay. However, he managed to avoid the usual qualities of modelled clay and gave the work a balanced, analytical approach which reduces the figure to a few basic, geometrical planes.
The form was first cast in plaster and then in lead. The lead provides a stone like, matt finish. Unfortunately, unlike stone, lead is very susceptible to heat and is easily scratched.
The Gallery also has in its Collection a maquette and preliminary lithograph, as illustrated below.
Map Ref.5. (Item b) This work is usually on display inside the Gallery, on the ramp leading from Temporary Exhibition Gallery No.10 to The Brasserie Restaurant.
Maillol died on 27 September 1944 in the town of his birth, Banyulus-sur-Mer, on the Mediterranean Sea. Dina Vierny, Maillol's companion during the last 10 years of his life, established the Maillol Museum in Paris. The National Gallery was able to purchase the Study for "La montagne" (illustrated above) through this Musuem.
The Gallery already owned, "Junon", 1926, (illustrated below), which looks as if it may have been a preliminary sketch for this sculpture. However, Vierny believes that the inspiration for the pose of "La Montagne" was not a model but the result of Maillol's life long study of the sculpture of Greece during the classical period.
© 1995 Jane M Hyden
