DOI issue:
Nr. 334 (March 1925)
DOI article:Eglington, Guy: Modern sculpture and Laurent
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19984#0183
mceRnAuonAL
formal sense quick to seize the main archi-
tectural lines of any composition, the essen-
tial qualities and possibilities for expression
of any material.
The result is a bewildering diversity of
which the most liberal illustration can give
no more than a hint. And this is the more
unfortunate since to point to any work or
group of works and say: "This, or that, is
Laurent; these are his major works," which
is the usual implication of selection, would
be not only untrue but also to set up an
entirely false criterion. It might be just to
judge Maillol by his "Pomona," Gill by his
"Stations of the Cross," Faggi by his "Pieta"
or "Portrait of Yone Nogugi." It would
certainly be unjust to judge Laurent by his
marble "Mother and Child," his heads in
alabaster or even a whole group of his bas-
reliefs in wood. All that one is entitled to
say of any single work is that it represents
the response of its maker to an existing set
of physical and metaphysical facts to which
he has no more than given that ideal coher-
ence, through distribution of emphasis,
toward which, to his imaginative mind, they
seemed to be striving.
I am aware that this is to set up diver-
sity as a positive quality, in defiance of all
the best canons, which demand before all
things direction conscious or unconscious, a
goal toward which every effort tends. Yet I
can see no way out of it. Certainly more
typical of the man than any common char-
acteristic uniting his oeuvre is the imagina-
tive exuberance which tends continually to
disperse it, an exuberance which no intel-
lectual parti-pris could hope to withstand.
And this exuberance, if not the diversity
which results directly from it, must be taken
as positive. More; as the one factor which
conditions the very existence of the whole.
Other factors release, control and shape as
t . t i r ■-ri • "negress" (wood) by Robert laurent
best they may the motive force. 1 his con-
tains within itself the life principle. On the one the material, which in the first place released
hand then, is the feminine, if I may continue to use imagination, shapes its direction by means of its
the physiological parallel, almost superabundant natural aptitudes, both inherent and occasional,
fecundity of Laurent's imagination. On the other on which the sensitive imagination is quick to
the masculine material. Both happily contain, as seize. On the other, fecundity itself, though free
part of their own nature, principles which control to the point of promiscuity, is yet possessed with
and shape, which, though they are powerless to a passion for that poised and balanced strength
impose direction, yet assure to each individual which is the prime attribute of nobility. The first
work its strength, stability and the Tightness of provides the seed with the impulse to growth and
its main architectural lines. Thus we have the points its direction. The second relates the parts,
fortunate paradox of an uncontrolled but almost But if Laurent's work is only to be grasped in
perfectly balanced eclecticism. On the one hand all its diversity by reference to the circumstances
MARCH I925
Jour Jorly-three
formal sense quick to seize the main archi-
tectural lines of any composition, the essen-
tial qualities and possibilities for expression
of any material.
The result is a bewildering diversity of
which the most liberal illustration can give
no more than a hint. And this is the more
unfortunate since to point to any work or
group of works and say: "This, or that, is
Laurent; these are his major works," which
is the usual implication of selection, would
be not only untrue but also to set up an
entirely false criterion. It might be just to
judge Maillol by his "Pomona," Gill by his
"Stations of the Cross," Faggi by his "Pieta"
or "Portrait of Yone Nogugi." It would
certainly be unjust to judge Laurent by his
marble "Mother and Child," his heads in
alabaster or even a whole group of his bas-
reliefs in wood. All that one is entitled to
say of any single work is that it represents
the response of its maker to an existing set
of physical and metaphysical facts to which
he has no more than given that ideal coher-
ence, through distribution of emphasis,
toward which, to his imaginative mind, they
seemed to be striving.
I am aware that this is to set up diver-
sity as a positive quality, in defiance of all
the best canons, which demand before all
things direction conscious or unconscious, a
goal toward which every effort tends. Yet I
can see no way out of it. Certainly more
typical of the man than any common char-
acteristic uniting his oeuvre is the imagina-
tive exuberance which tends continually to
disperse it, an exuberance which no intel-
lectual parti-pris could hope to withstand.
And this exuberance, if not the diversity
which results directly from it, must be taken
as positive. More; as the one factor which
conditions the very existence of the whole.
Other factors release, control and shape as
t . t i r ■-ri • "negress" (wood) by Robert laurent
best they may the motive force. 1 his con-
tains within itself the life principle. On the one the material, which in the first place released
hand then, is the feminine, if I may continue to use imagination, shapes its direction by means of its
the physiological parallel, almost superabundant natural aptitudes, both inherent and occasional,
fecundity of Laurent's imagination. On the other on which the sensitive imagination is quick to
the masculine material. Both happily contain, as seize. On the other, fecundity itself, though free
part of their own nature, principles which control to the point of promiscuity, is yet possessed with
and shape, which, though they are powerless to a passion for that poised and balanced strength
impose direction, yet assure to each individual which is the prime attribute of nobility. The first
work its strength, stability and the Tightness of provides the seed with the impulse to growth and
its main architectural lines. Thus we have the points its direction. The second relates the parts,
fortunate paradox of an uncontrolled but almost But if Laurent's work is only to be grasped in
perfectly balanced eclecticism. On the one hand all its diversity by reference to the circumstances
MARCH I925
Jour Jorly-three