Yvonne SERRUYS, Femme à la coupe / Hébé (vers 1912)

YVONNE SERRUYS (Menin 1873 - Paris 1953)
Femme à la coupe / Hébé
Circa 1912
Bronze, with a gold patina
H. 44 cm (with the base 53 cm)

Yvonne Serruys exhibited a version of the Femme à la coupe / Hébé in marbre in 1911 (now in the Musée Comminal, Menin), then around 1912 the foundry Hébrard produced a version in bronze. Some of these bronzes have an integral base in bronze with four putti at the corners holding festoons, others were produced without this base. Similarly, in terms of patina, some have a golden patina, whereas others have a very dark, almost black, patina. The examples with the base adorned with putti are without doubt imposing, but they are overly fussy and take away for the purity of the figure itself. This example has a simple base of wood, probably ebeny.

Serruys was an important Belgo-French sculptor, and in 2023 an exhibition was dedicated to her in Menin with a fine catalogue written by the Belgian art historian Marjan Sterckx. Perhaps the most importan goal of Serruy's art was to renew the legendary figures and the forms of antiquity into a new, modern, woman, and with her sculpture Femme à la coupe / Hébé, modeled after a young woman, Gisèle, who worked for Serruys and her husband, she acheived this with great success. The bracelet, which is very nicely done in copper and in silver, is a later customisation, but I beleive it should be left as it is now integral to the history of the object.