Lot 53: Julien Dillens , Belgian 1849 - 1904 kneeling nude white marble

signed: Jul Dillens white marble

measurements note 47.5cm., 18 5/8 in.

Julien Dillens' Kneeling Figure was directly inspired by Lorenzo Bartolini's La Fiducia in Dio of 1835. Dillens won the Prix de Rome from the Brussels Academy in 1877 and completed the Kneeling Figure not long after his return from Italy, exhibiting it for the first time in 1885 at the Exposition Universelle in Antwerp in a plaster version. The figure was exhibited many times during and after Dillens' lifetime. Notably it appeared at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, in a marble version. The original marble, in the larger size of 98cm was acquired by the Belgian State from the artist and is in the collection of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. That version includes roses fallen from the girl's cupped hands. The present figure is a rare marble reduction of the model. The reduction preserves the intensity of the girl's mood, and in the smaller dimensions the marble has a jewel-like quality, both precious and tender.

RELATED LITERATURE
Lennep, p. 163; Engelen & Marx, vol. 1, p. 595; Tommelein, p. 144; Lennep et al., pp. 367-372