Victor TARDIEU (1870-1937). - Lot 107

Victor TARDIEU (1870-1937). Director of the Indochina School of Fine Arts. Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Prix de l'Indochine in 1920. Large preparatory sketch for the painting Dockers à Gêne. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Dimensions: 224x94.5 cm. (Folds and restoration; some minor peeling of the paint layer in the lower right). Provenance: Artist's family The last known preparatory study for the monumental composition of The Dockers in Genoa, this large-format work is a treasure that reveals the academic culture of Tardieu, who trained at the Beaux-Arts in Lyon, then in Paris with Bonnat and Maignan. In a vein borrowed from 19th-century social realism, the artist sets out to depict the drudgery of working-class labor. In keeping with his admiration for Michelangelo, he sculpts a body in tension, in a perfectly executed contrapposto under the weight of the burlap sack. The modelling is just right, and the figure's structured pose recalls the greatest masters of classical painting, a legacy with great meaning. Both in its monumentality and its accuracy, this preparatory sketch already heralds the great figures of the fresco "La Métropole", painted for the University of Hanoi. It is part of the cycle dealing with the life of workers, for which the final painting (Lynda Trouvé, Indochine | Chapitre 12, 22 mars 2022, lot 102), was sold for €140,000 and the modello for €16,000 on March 22, 2022 (Lynda Trouvé, Indochine | Chapitre 12, 22 mars 2022, lot 103).