Motherhood

• OSSIP ZADKINE
  Motherhood

• Acquired with funds from the Valentine Prax bequest, 1993
• 1919
• Marble
• Inv. MZD 401
• Musée Zadkine
• Room 1

In his memoirs Zadkine speaks about this sculpture carved out of a block of marble. “A rounded side represents the body of the mother, the other side, very flat, is adorned with the drawing of a child’s body, presented in bas-relief”. This composition is one of the 18 which Zadkine produced on the theme of motherhood, of which four, including this one, came into being within a two year period between 1918 and 1919. At this time, Zadkine had left La Ruche and set up in a studio in the Rue Rousselet. This work, with its archaism, is to a certain extent reminiscent of Cycladic idols, which Zadkine apparently saw during his repeated visits to the British Museum in London, where they made an early appearance.  

It is interesting to observe the way in which Zadkine leaves the stone in its raw state in certain areas, in order to better highlight the polish of others. The construction in successive planes is dictated by the block itself which Zadkine respects right down to its faults. The delicacy which permeates this composition springing from the tilting of the mother's head and the harmoniously combined curves, led the critic Maurice Raynal to say that Zadkine exhibited a "sculptural tenderness". This work belonged to Dr Girardin, whose bequest largely dominated the creation of the City of Paris Musée d’Art Moderne.