*MEDARDO ROSSO (ITALIAN, 1858-1928): ‘PETITE RIEUSE’A wax over plaster head of a laughing womanSubject conceived in 1890, probably a posthumous cast by the sculptor’s son, Francesco Rosso and cast from the original plaster model (now in the Private Collection of the Rosso heirs, Milan).Inscribed ‘Medardo Rosso’ ‘Danila Rosso Parravicini’ on the plaster interior.Sold together with the original letter of authentication from Danila Rosso Parravicini and a copy of the original exhibition catalogue from the ‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’ exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, 1973, and the exhibition catalogue from the 2003 Kunstmuseum Winterthur exhibition, mounted on a later wooden plinth, (the plinth 20cm high x 35cm wide)34cm x 21cm x 21cm£70,000 – 100,000* Please note that this lot is subject to import VAT at a preferential rate of 5% on the Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on the Buyer’s Premium. Please see our terms and conditions for further information.WE ARE GRATEFUL TO THE MEDARDO ROSSO MUSEUM, BARZIO FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE WITH RESEARCHING AND CATALOGUING THIS WORK.PROVENANCESold by the granddaughter of Medardo Rosso, Danila Rosso Parravicini on 17th August 1965 to Philip Granville of Lord’s Gallery, London.Purchased by the present owner from Phillips, London, 5 February 2001, lot 24.EXHIBITED‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London, 20 July – 23 September 1973, No. 181.‘Medardo Rosso’, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 6 September – 23 November 2003, No. 25.‘Medardo Rosso’, Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Centre for International Sculpture, Duisburg, 14 December – 28 March 2004.LITERATURE‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’ Exhibition Catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1973, p.145. (A copy to be sold with the sculpture)‘Medardo Rosso’ Kunstmuseum Winterthur & Stiftung Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Centre for International Sculpture Exhibition Catalogue, No. 25, full page illustration, p. 100. (A copy to be sold with the sculpture).M. Fagioli, ‘Medardo Rosso Catalogue of the Sculptures’, Opus Libri, 1993, No. 30.Paola Mola & Fabio Vittucci, ‘Medardo Rosso Catalogo ragionato della scultura’, Museo Medardo Rosso, Skira, 2009, p. 126-131, p. 277-283, p. 127 illustrates a photograph circa 1907 of a photograph by Rosso of 1901, showing a wax cast of the Petite Rieuse.Dr Sharon Hecker, ‘A Moment’s Monument, Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture’, University of California Press, 2017, p. 137-139. Figure 52 illustrates an original photograph by Rosso of a wax cast of the Petite Rieuse.Margaret Scolari Barr, ‘Medardo Rosso’, New York, 1963, p.34-36. Page 35 illustrates a wax cast of the Petite Rieuse which is listed as being in the Medardo Rosso Museum, Barzio. Page 36 illustrates a contemporary photograph of Rosso in his Paris studio modelling the Petite Rieuse.F. Stocchi ‘Medardo Rosso’, Giunti, 2015. p. 40 illustrates a photograph circa 1902 of a wax cast of Petite Rieuse.‘Medardo Rosso Sight Unseen and his Encounters with London’, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, exhibition catalogue, p.54-55. p. 55 illustrates a photograph of the wax Petite Rieuse circa 1902, p. 27 shows another photograph of a wax cast of the Petite Rieuse in a rectangular glazed case, dating from the early 1890’s and in situ in Medardo Rosso’s studio. This exhibition included a bronze cast of the same subject.OTHER KNOWN CASTS OF ‘PETITE RIEUSE’The following known examples cast in wax are listed in the Catalogue Raisonnée by P. Mola & F. Vittucci:Lifetime casts:Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’ Pesaro, Venice, inv. 554National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, inv. 80.1680Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, inv.9072Private Collection, Milan.Original casts without documented lifetime provenance:Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands, inv. 170-20Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago / New York.Private Collection, previously Collection Panizzuti, now Collection Gianni Porta, Milan.Posthumous casts, legally cast from the original plaster model by Francesco Rosso:1. Medardo Rosso Museum, Barzio, Italy.A bronze cast of Petite Rieuse is now in the Musee Rodin, Paris. This cast was given to Rodin by Rosso when they first met in 1893 in exchange for Rodin’s ‘Torso’.This important sculpture belongs to the above rarefied group of casts that are in major museums throughout the world. The work was sold by Medardo Rosso’s granddaughter Danila Rosso Parravicini on 17th August 1965 to the important British art dealer Philip Leonard Granville, director of Lords Gallery in St John’s Wood, London. Rosso’s granddaughter provided a written certificate of authenticity for the work, which she apparently believed at the time to be a life time cast by her grandfather. Three other works were sold at the same time and are listed in the document, they are:Bambino Ebreo,Grande Rieuse and Ecce Puer.The Grande Rieuse (Laughing Woman, large version) listed above is now in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery, London, inv. T04846. It is catalogued as a posthumous cast, probably made during the 1950’s and was also inscribed by the artist’s granddaughter ‘Danila Rosso Parravicini’ on the plaster surface. It was purchased from Philip Granville of Lord’s Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) with assistance from the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1986. The Grande Rieuse was, like the Petite Rieuse, exhibited in the 1973 Hayward Gallery show ‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’ (No. 182, repr. p.72, as ‘Large Laughing Figure (Grande Rieuse)’, dated 1891).When purchased by the Tate Gallery in 1986, Grande Rieuse was thought to date from the 1890s. This impression was supported by the bill of sale, signed by the artist’s granddaughter, which stated that this and the other works including Petite Rieuse, sold to the London dealer Philip Granville, were ‘authentic’ Rossos, and had been signed by her. However, on 31st March 1989, the Medardo Rosso expert, Luciano Caramel, examined the cast at the Tate Gallery and came to the conclusion that the sculpture was a posthumous cast from the 1950's.It is only in relatively recent years that scholarly research has shown that some of the sculptures that were previously thought to have been lifetime casts made by the artist were in fact authorised casts made legally after his death by his son Francesco, from the sculptor’s original plaster models. Dr Sharon Hecker’s fascinating article ‘The afterlife of sculptures: posthumous casts and the case of Medardo Rosso’ (Journal of Art Historiography Number 16 June 2017) discusses this in some depth, and uses the Tate’s Grande Rieuse as her main example.Paola Mola and Fabio Vittucci’s scholarly work on the sculptor’s oeuvre has validated these concerns, and in their 2009 catalogue raisonné they divided the known works into those that had lifetime provenance and those that were un-documented or thought to have been cast by Francesco Rosso, as listed at the start of this footnote. Casts by Francesco Rosso are in museums throughout the world, including the Medardo Rosso Museum, Barzio which has a wax head of Petite Rieuse cast by Francesco (see notes above).A wax over plaster cast of ‘Bambina Ridente’, also conceived in 1890 but cast by Francesco Rosso from the artist’s original plaster model was sold at Chiswick Auctions, London, 12th September 2018, lot 157, £225,000 (including premium).For further information please see www.chiswickauctions.com/auction/