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111
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Bronze sculpture of two men's heads
Alfredo Pina (1883 - 196…
See original version (French)
111
-
Bronze sculpture of two men's heads
Alfredo Pina (1883 - 196…
See original version (French)
Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Bronze sculpture of two men's heads
Alfredo Pina (1883 - 1966)
Signed A. Pina/ a mon ami/ Tolak 1913 / J. Bram ?/ Cire Perdue
Provenance: Paris collection
Alfredo Pina began his training in Milan at the Academy of Fine Arts, winning the Grand Prix National for sculpture in 1904. He studied artistic anatomy with Professor Broggi. In 1907, he moved to Rome, where he lived until 1910. During these three years, he frequented a cosmopolitan artistic milieu made up of many French artists, who encouraged him to come to France.
With the support of the Countess of Treviso, Pina obtained a studio in the Château des Imbergères in Sceaux. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français (from 1911 to 1914), of which he was appointed general secretary in 1914.
He received numerous commissions for busts: M. Capet deputy mayor of Sceaux (1914), M. Herriot Mayor of Lyon and Senator of the Rhône (1920). In 1913, one of them, a bust of the deputy Jean Langlois, was noticed by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) who offered her a place in his studio, which Pina did until the master's death in 1917.
At the end of the war, he moved to Montparnasse, where he rented a studio on rue du Maine, adjoining that of Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). In December 1920, the Galerie Allard held a retrospective exhibition of his work, which was a great success. Clément Morro, the critic of the Revue Moderne des Arts et de la Vie, supported him and did not hesitate to quote the words of a writer and critic friend at the Salon d'Automne in 1921: "I regret Rodin's death less when I look at Pina's works".
Working between France and Italy, in 1920 Pina took part for the first time in the XII Venice Biennale, one of the most important artistic events in Italy. On the strength of his Italian successes, he came to the attention of the political authorities of the time, who were seeking to promote monumental commemorative sculpture as a means of exalting national values.
Pina's talent for transcribing the precise anatomy of the human body and her indelible imprint on her
master Rodin. Indeed, the vigorous modelling of the faces and hands, and the tension expressed by the expression on the faces to amplify the scope of the message, unquestionably reflect Rodin's lesson.
Alfred Pina spent the last part of his life in Mesves-sur-Loire, in the Nièvre region of France. In 1668, the Musée Municipal de la Charité-sur-Loire received a donation of several works from the artist's studio, including a yellow ochre painted plaster of The Supreme Effort (Inv.: AM 1732 S). An exhibition entitled Alfredo Pina (1887-1966): un sculpteur entre l'Italie et la Nièvre at the Musée municipal Auguste Grasset, 22 rue de l'Hôtel de ville,
58210 Varzy dedicated to the artist opened on 12 May and will run until 31 October 2023.
Comparative bibliography
B. Musetti, La question du gigantisme en Italie dans les années 1920. Le cas d'Alfredo Pina, C. Fraixe, L. Piccioni et C. Poupault, Vers une Europe Latine Acteurs et enjeux des échanges culturels entre la France et l'Italie fasciste, Brussels, 2014.
B. Musetti, Les épigones italiens d'Auguste Rodin et la question du monument public à travers un exemple : le Monument à Dante Alighieri d'Alfredo Pina, Bulletin de L'AHAI, n°11, 2005.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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