Have you noticed that the attention of an animal in motion is always on its center of gravity? In locating that center of gravity, you allow the animal to express itself. I worked as I walked along, looking at nothing but the animal, tracing its sharp, sinuous lines. moves deftly, in a dynamic rhythmic that runs the length of his body, revealing a powerful structure and solid, supple muscle masses just beneath his sumptuous fur.” “It’s the movement alone that creates the masses and makes them eloquent,” Pompon said, and then added, “In order to capture the animal’s life in motion, I followed him with a small drawing board held in front of me by a string around my neck. “Dynamic stasis and the synthesis of form” In his treatment of this wild and, frankly, dangerous animal, Pompon achieves a peaceful, almost tender image. In a handwritten letter in the collections of the musée d’Orsay, Jean Bernard mentions the atmosphere of affection that developed between the artist and the bear, who posed for him, kind of “hamming it up.” This particular polar bear had been captured on Spitsbergen by Philippe, the Duc d’Orléans, during his expedition on the Belgica in 1905. His regular and relaxed presence made the animals, in turn, relaxed around him. In the afternoon, he would go back to his studio and continue working on them. He drew the animals and modeled them on site in plaster and clay.
Pompom animals bear portable#
He then began frequenting the Jardin de Plantes in Paris, eventually going every day, bringing a portable studio slung across his back.
Pompon began working on animals, using domesticated species as models, on visits to the country. His vision, balanced and introspective, was closer to Charles Despiau’s or Jane Poupelet’s. Neither Barye’s romanticism nor Rodin’s ardor truly spoke to Pompon’s sensibility. He learned his art from Rodin, and then, during the 1910s, he became close to members of the “Bande à Schnegg,” who were interested in returning to an earlier calm. He came to Paris as a young artist in 1875, the year that Barye and Carpeaux both died. Stradling two centuries, Pompon renewed the language of his discipline.
Pompom animals bear full#
Thanks to his great technical ability, developed over time, and his sincere interest in his subjects, he achieved a synthetic style of full forms, eventually becoming one of the greatest animal sculptors of the 20th century. “Animals pose well, much better than men and women. His focus on animals came relatively late, between 19, and throughout his years of working with them, he developed a deep sensitivity to them.
).” Pompon was 67 years old at the time, with a long career behind him, during which he had often worked for others, serving as an assistant for Rodin, René de Saint-Marceaux, Camille Claudel, and a number of other sculptors. “The Polar Bear was shown to advantage at the Salon d’Automne positioned in a stream of light, it struck viewers as the all-powerful lord of the Arctic (. The work was widely admired, and the critics lauded it. This work is Pompon’s signature piece, and in fact it was the presentation of the large plaster model of the Polar Bear at the Salon d’automne in 1922 that brought Pompon his first broad recognition. About The Polar Bear, that “enormous polar phenomenon”