Émile-Antoine Bourdelle
Bust of the painter Henri Nazon
1893
Terracotta
This terracotta portrait bust of the painter Henri Nazon by Émile-Antoine Bourdelle records the friendship between these artists, and it remained in Nazon’s family until 2017. Bourdelle explores the older artist’s features with touching empathy, the side-swept hair and roughly modeled beard imparting a sense of energy and emotion. Toolmarks and fingerprints record Bourdelle’s creative process as he worked the clay. This is the MFA’s first sculpture by this important artist who worked at the same time as Auguste Rodin, in fact serving Rodin as a marble carver for many years.
John Lowell Gardner Fund
2019.636