Stone sculptures

Through the use of direct carving, Zadkine pays homage to "the ancient tradition of those stone and wood sculptors, who having left the forest, gave free rein to their dreams of fantastical birds and large tree trunks" while contributing to the revival of sculpture at the beginning of the twentieth century. Limestone, granite, alabaster, marble and lava stone are the diverse materials used in the creation of the collection’s 32 sculptures. The oldest sculpture and without doubt the first which he carved around 1909, in Russia, "from a large piece of yellow and red granite abandoned in a field by an arctic glacier", is the Head of a Hero.

The majority of the works in the collection predate 1930. They are mainly heads and female figures Motherhood, Female Musician, The Beautiful Servant Girl, Woman with a Bird. But also decorative works: reliefs in alabaster, mantelpieces, and a Bird combining alabaster with a crystal base. Only three sculptures date from the 1960s including a Woman with a Bird in granite.