BAILLY GALLERY

Geneva / Paris
BAILLY GALLERY

Antoine Bourdelle

(French, 1861 – 1929)
Antoine Bourdelle was a French sculptor known for his use of quivering Romanesque forms in his depictions of mythological figures. One of his best known works Hercules the Archer (1909), was a commissioned sculpture for the financier Gabriel Thomas. Born Émile-Antoine Bourdelle on October 30, 1861 in Montauban, France, he learned woodworking as a youth from his father who was a cabinetmaker. While assisting his father during the workday, he studied drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse in the evening. Moving to Paris in 1885, the artist became an assistant to Auguste Rodin in 1893, Rodin’s influence is evident in many of Bourdelle’s early sculptures. By 1900, he had begun receiving commissions for a number...