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Édouard-Marcel Sandoz Bronze Condor Sculpture
This bronze figure of a condor was designed and cast circa 1911-1912 by the Swiss-French animalier sculptor Édouard Marcel Sandoz. Formed of richly patinated bronze, the condor is refined to its essential planes and forms. With its shining dark surfaces, this streamlined and compelling work anticipates the powerful stylization of the Art Deco and Art Moderne.
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- Curator's Notes
Item #: B-20429
Artist: Édouard Marcel Sandoz
Country: France
Circa: 1911-1912
Dimensions: 15" high x 9" wide x 24" deep
Materials: Bronze
Signed: Ed. M. Sandoz with Paris Foundry Mark
Literature: Mobilier et Décoration, April 1927, p. 121; Alastair Duncan, ed., The Encyclopedia of Art Deco, New York, 1988, p. 156 (for the model in granite); Félix Marcilhac, Sandoz, Sculpteur, Figuriste et Animalier, 1881-1971: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Œuvre Sculpté, Paris, 1993, p. 402, cat. no. 840
Exhibited: Les Animaliers, Galerie Edgar Brandt, Paris, 1927; American Birds, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, October-December 1945; Art Deco, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, 1971; Art Deco, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, July-September 1971; Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1972-1978
Note: This majestic sculpture was designed to be realized in different media, and examples are known in bronze, plaster and black marble.
The condor’s range extends from Big Sur to Baja California. With its ten foot wingspan and evolved aerodynamics, the majestic bird is nature’s ultimate flying machine, capable of gliding a full day by taking advantage of successive warm updrafts. Inquisitive, engagingly intelligent, and graceful in the sky, the condor is an emblem of power in American tribal symbology. Here again Sandoz shows his capacity to convey the essence of the animal, anticipating the power of modernist abstraction. Sandoz’ sensibility appears in the skeuomorphic animal figures ornamenting the 1920s skyscrapers of New York.