“Tendresse”, stone sculpture, Émile Just Bachelet (1892-1981), circa 1930

“Tendresse”
Sculpture carved directly in marble-like stone
Circa 1930
Signed “Bachelet” on the base
H. 54 cm · W. 35 cm · D. 32 cm

Literature
L’Art Vivant, no. 139, 1930
Mobilier et Décoration, July 1933

Extract
“It was in Nancy that Bachelet received his first training, at a time when the ‘School of Nancy’ was at its height. He spent his youth and served his apprenticeship in that extraordinary and unusual artistic milieu, which worked with enthusiasm under the influence of a Gallé, a Vallin, a Prouvé… As an example, consider this group of soft volumes, full of charm and strength, entitled Tendresse, and we will admire how the sculptor knows how to soften and nuance his modelling through delicate gradations. Bachelet shuns realism. He knows how to draw out the elementary lines whose contours inscribe planes with subtly managed transitions. He stylises naturally… His art is rooted in two qualities that do not always go together: intelligence and honesty.”
Bernard Champigneulle, in Mobilier et Décoration, July 1933

Note
The same publication reproduces on page 303 “Vénus à la coquille”, sold in 2020 at Bonhams.

Biographical notes
Born in Nancy, a pupil of Ernest Bussière at the city’s École des beaux-arts and then of the Couteau studio in Paris, Émile Just Bachelet exhibited at the Salon from 1920. The author of war memorials across Lorraine, he won a gold medal at the 1925 Exposition for a bas-relief on the Nancy pavilion. Working in ivory, stone, bronze and ceramics, he collaborated with Henriot Quimper and the Sèvres manufactory, which edited several of his sculptures.