Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)was born in Montauban in the Southern France. At the age of 13 he left school and started to work as a carpenter apprentice to help the family financially. In the meanwhile his talents came to be recognized and he entered an art school in Toulouse. Furthermore, when he was 23, he went to Paris to study at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Bourdelle was not totally happy with the education he received at the l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He left the school before finishing the course and kept exhibiting his art works at the Salon despite of his financial difficulties. Later he met Rodin, a leading French sculptor in the 19th Century, who acknowledged his talents very highly.
Bourdelle had served as an assistant to Rodin for about 15 years since he was 32. He learned under Rodin but at the same time he is believed to have exerted influence on Rodin's work. He developed his own art by growing beyond Rodin's influence.
Since he was 27 until his death in 1929, Bourdelle worked on statues of Beethoven. He left behind as many as 45 statues including etudes. He started to create Beethoven, thinking he looked similar to the composer. Eventually he became completely absorbed in expressing inner struggle of Beethoven who had kept composing with his deaf ears.
This statue of Beethoven keeps his mouth tightly shut and eyes closed and seems to be in agony. Bourdelle once said, "Music and sculpture are the same. Sculptors create with mass and volume and musicians with sound." This statue verifies his statement. "Beethoven" represents Bourdelle's struggle to express human suffering through the use of stone.
Reference: Catalog: "Exhibition of Great Artist, Bourdelle, Father of Modern Sculpture" (Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art), 1982
Anecdote
Ohara Museum of Art celebrated the 30 anniversary in 1960 and in November it held a commemorative concert. For this concert, Soichiro Ohara requested Toshiro Mayuzumi and Akio Yashiro, young and spirited composers, to compose music appropriate to the occasion.
On the day of the concert, Soichiro acted as the master of ceremony. The statue of Beethoven was placed on the stage set up in front of "Annunciation" by El Greco. Prior to the concert Soichiro introduced the composers one by one.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Mr. Toshiro Mayuzumi and Mr. Akio Yashiro. But as we cannot invite Beethoven, the composer of the first piece this evening, we bought this statue of Beethoven by Bourdelle."
For a concert on one night, he did such a thing.
The program that evening constituted:
1. Beethoven
Opus 59 No1 : String Quartet No.7 in F Major 'Razumovsky No.1'
2. Toshiro Mayuzumi
Soliloquy for Unaccompanied Cello
(Currently it is widely known and loved throughout the world as "Bunraku".)
3. Akio Yashiro
Piano Sonata 'The 3rd Movement'
Beethoven
Commentary
Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)was born in Montauban in the Southern France. At the age of 13 he left school and started to work as a carpenter apprentice to help the family financially. In the meanwhile his talents came to be recognized and he entered an art school in Toulouse. Furthermore, when he was 23, he went to Paris to study at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Bourdelle was not totally happy with the education he received at the l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He left the school before finishing the course and kept exhibiting his art works at the Salon despite of his financial difficulties. Later he met Rodin, a leading French sculptor in the 19th Century, who acknowledged his talents very highly.
Bourdelle had served as an assistant to Rodin for about 15 years since he was 32. He learned under Rodin but at the same time he is believed to have exerted influence on Rodin's work. He developed his own art by growing beyond Rodin's influence.
Since he was 27 until his death in 1929, Bourdelle worked on statues of Beethoven. He left behind as many as 45 statues including etudes. He started to create Beethoven, thinking he looked similar to the composer. Eventually he became completely absorbed in expressing inner struggle of Beethoven who had kept composing with his deaf ears.
This statue of Beethoven keeps his mouth tightly shut and eyes closed and seems to be in agony. Bourdelle once said, "Music and sculpture are the same. Sculptors create with mass and volume and musicians with sound." This statue verifies his statement. "Beethoven" represents Bourdelle's struggle to express human suffering through the use of stone.
Reference: Catalog: "Exhibition of Great Artist, Bourdelle, Father of Modern Sculpture" (Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art), 1982
Anecdote
Ohara Museum of Art celebrated the 30 anniversary in 1960 and in November it held a commemorative concert. For this concert, Soichiro Ohara requested Toshiro Mayuzumi and Akio Yashiro, young and spirited composers, to compose music appropriate to the occasion.
On the day of the concert, Soichiro acted as the master of ceremony. The statue of Beethoven was placed on the stage set up in front of "Annunciation" by El Greco. Prior to the concert Soichiro introduced the composers one by one.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Mr. Toshiro Mayuzumi and Mr. Akio Yashiro. But as we cannot invite Beethoven, the composer of the first piece this evening, we bought this statue of Beethoven by Bourdelle."
For a concert on one night, he did such a thing.
The program that evening constituted:
1. Beethoven
Opus 59 No1 : String Quartet No.7 in F Major 'Razumovsky No.1'
2. Toshiro Mayuzumi
Soliloquy for Unaccompanied Cello
(Currently it is widely known and loved throughout the world as "Bunraku".)
3. Akio Yashiro
Piano Sonata 'The 3rd Movement'
Painting
Apple Picking
Small Table in Evening Dusk
Song of Songs (Le Cantique des Cantiques)
Haystacks
Waterlilies
Cliff of Gréville
Coutyard at the ‘Rondest House’, Pontoise
Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze
Delightful Land (Te Nave Nave Fenua)
All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God’s Love
Wave
Carriage and Pair
Three Dancers in Red Costume
Autumn Sea
Old Horse in the Wasteland
Landscape
Festival of Venis
Hair
Winter Orchard
Beethoven
Landscape of La Ferté-Milon
Annunciation