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François Madurell "Female Faces" Bronze Jardinière
$7,500
"Female Faces" is a Bronze Art Nouveau planter by François Madurell of a woman's visage. The crowned woman, whose eyes are closed in a dream state, appears to float amidst poppy blossoms. As one travels the vessel’s perimeter, one may observe the poppies appear in the women’s swopping tresses. It is her beautiful, gently swirling hair that creates the form of the planter itself. Her hair’s ends make articulated elements extending from the vessel’s otherwise smooth surface, creating an elegant naturalistic representation of how hair falls, much like flowing water.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: YS-20989
Artist: François Madurell
Country: France
Circa: 1900
Dimensions: 5.5" high x 8" diameter
Materials: Bronze
Signed: F. Madurell 6909 Foundry Mark "Bronze Garanti Au Titre L. V Deposse"
Literature: Dynamic Beauty Sculpture of Art Nouveau Paris, Macklowe Gallery, 2011, p 206
The poppy as a symbol in Art Nouveau is linked to the mystery of life and death due to the flower’s product, the narcotic opium. The use of opium in the 1900s was especially favored by artists, occultists, and theosophical societies because they believed it allowed them to cross the veil to the other side. There is also the connection between the poppy and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of the mid-1850s, artists who used the imagery of the flower in reference to Renaissance literature.