Jacques Lipchitz
Seated Figure
1915
Cast bronze (lost-wax cast) with patina
34 x 8 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches (86.4 x 21.3 x 16.5 cm) Edition 1 of 7
Numbered and signed 1/7 J Lipchitz and stamped MODERN ART FDRY NY (on the base)
In October 1909, Jacques Lipchitz arrived in Paris at the age of 18, from his native Lithuania. With no previous academic training, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, where he studied for a brief period, before moving into a studio next door to Constantin Brancusi in 1912. In 1913, Lipchitz met Pablo Picasso through his friend Diego Rivera, prompting the first of many significant variations in the artist’s style. It was through Picasso that he learned about Cubism, and embarked upon his own Cubist period, between the years 1913-1930, experimenting with volume, plane, and line.
While his initial sculptures were largely figurative, with the subject’s anatomical features cautiously detached, by 1915, Lipchitz had developed an almost total “separateness” of bold, geometric forms. Seated Figure was created that same year, and interlocks flat, angular planes, with cones and cylinders, to reveal a commitment to abstraction that is unique in the artist’s oeuvre. Cast in bronze and structured with a strong vertical presence, the sculpture integrates figurative and architectural shapes, offering a unique contribution to the Cubist movement.