Léon-ernest Drivier (1878-1951), Female Nude, Black And Sanguine Stone On Paper

Léon-Ernest Drivier (1878-1951)
Female nude
Black chalk and red chalk on paper
Signed lower left
31 x 23.5 cm
Provenance: former Marie de Rohan Chabot collection, Princess Murat, then by descent
Infimes stains

Native to Grenoble, Léon -Ernest Drivier joined the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1895 in the studio of the sculptor Louis-Ernest Barrias. He began as a practitioner in Auguste Rodin's studio alongside other sculptors soon united under the name Bande à Schnegg. In search of a new aesthetic, these combine the expressionist force inherited from the master with the fundamentals of ancient and Renaissance classical sculpture. Founding member of the Salon des Indépendants in 1923, Léon-Ernest Drivier received numerous public and private commissions for monumental works and large decorations. Requested by the State, he produced a gilded bronze sculpture representing Athena for the Colonial Museum inaugurated in 1931 (current Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris).

In 1937, on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition, he executed a sculpted group in the round, La Joie de vivre, now kept in the gardens of the Trocadero, as well as two nymphs on the esplanade of the Palace. from Tokyo. He also received several commissions from the Argentine authorities who drew from the practitioners acclaimed by Rodin. Léon-Ernest Drivier is part of this modern figurative current of the 1920s-30s assuming the classical heritage. He focuses on the human figure by giving pride of place to stripping. Anxious to achieve an ideal of simplicity, he formulates an artistic proposal centered on the purification of volumes.