Marcel Début Gilded Bronze Portrait Nude Flower Woman Nature Allegory Symbolism Art Nouveau

Marcel Début Bronze Art Nouveau muse nue dans un élan symboliste 1900

Large bronze with golden copper patina signed Marcel Début, depicting a nude female figure standing on a planty mound, in a sinuous, collected pose, her arm brought back above her head and her left hand resting on her chest. The long, flowing hair flows down the back in wavy layers, while ivy stems and leaves seem to emerge from the ground, embracing the legs and extending the figure into the plant world. The whole piece rests on a beautiful circular base in red marble, which further accentuates the decorative preciosity of this cabinet sculpture, which is highly representative of the 1900 taste and uses the decorative vocabulary of the period.

This work should be read less as a simple academic nude than as an allegory of nature, a muse, even a flower-woman, at the crossroads of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Here, Marcel Début transforms the female body into a poetic apparition: the serpentine line, the fusion of plant and flesh, the hair treated as organic matter and the ecstatic attitude give the figure a dreamlike rather than realistic dimension. Bronze evokes that moment when the arts sought to make the feminine a decorative principle, sensual and spiritual all at once, in a kinship of spirit with the great imaginations of Moreau, Redon, Ranson or Mucha, and with the decorative culture of the Belle Époque, everything is built in suppleness, undulation, sliding volumes, with a true sense of rhythm and silent presence.

Marcel Début, a French sculptor active in the 1900s generation, here delivers a piece highly consistent with his most decorative and seductive vein. Modeling is softened, sensuality idealized, nature stylized without heaviness. The sculpture is very much in line with fin de siècle aesthetics, between softened naturalism, poetic symbolism and floral Art Nouveau. It can thus be presented as a fine allegory of nature or symbolist muse, France, circa 1895-1905, signed Marcel Début, with probable antique Parisian founder's pastille.

Good condition for use and presentation. Beautiful antique golden copper patina, with rubbing, minor wear, a few stains, light marks and punctual traces of oxidation visible in the photos. The red marble base also shows normal age-related wear. Beautiful overall appearance, highly decorative sculpture, mounted on a marble base.

Height: 60 cm.