SIR JACOB EPSTEIN (born 1880) British

MADONNA AND CHILD

Lead 14 ins

This work, recently purchased by the committee, is the maquette for the 13 1/2 ft sculpture which is placed on the facade of the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in Cavendish Square, London. The work was completed in 1952. The Madonna and Child is one of Epstein's major contributions to sculpture since the war, the others being Lazarus, and the recent figure of Christ commissioned for Landaff Cathedral. On the full size figure, the Madonna's head is cast down and the Child's arms are extended straight with the palms slightly upwards. The maquette, however, lacks nothing in strength and tenderness.

EMILE ANTOINE BOURDELLE (1861-1929)

French

MADONNA AND CHILD

Bronze 20 1/2 ins

The Mackelvie Collection
This work, which was purchased some years ago, presumably belongs to Bourdelle's late period for it is in the same style as the Monument Michiewicz in Paris, and the Monument to Dead Miners at Montceau-les-Mines. More closely it conforms to the conception of his great work La Vierge d'Alsace. Bourdelle worked with Rodin but gradually moved away from Rodin's expressionism to a greater depen-dance on Greek classical sculpture. Here he comes more under the influence of French Provincial Romanesque art.
   On studying this maquette, one is reminded of his dictum that sculptors should be 'mathematicians in form and musicians in proportion.'

BOURDELLE

Madonna and Child

page six