Patinated Plaster Woman by Maxime Fillon (1920-2003)

Patinated Plaster Woman by Maxime Fillon (1920-2003)

Plaster in faux bronze finish

Signed to the Base

The figure standing in strict frontality upon a shaped rectangular integral base, the arms pendant and close to the body, the weight distributed evenly across both legs in a pose of quiet, archaic stillness. The broadly modelled face, framed by long straight hair falling to the shoulders, regards the viewer with an expression of serene impassivity — wide-set eyes beneath a smooth brow, the features simplified to their essential geometry without sacrificing humanity.

The body, generously proportioned with full hips and rounded abdomen, is rendered with the direct, unhurried touch of a sculptor working from close observation, the tool marks deliberately preserved across the surface, lending the figure a raw, tactile vitality. The whole is finished in a deep dark brown patina, the underlying warm terracotta breaking through at the extremities and base, enriching the surface with tonal variation.

Note: The present work is characteristic of Fillon's mature sculptural output — rooted in the humanist figurative tradition of inter-war French sculpture yet inflected by the primitivising tendency that distinguished a generation shaped by the twin influences of Maillol's monumental femininity and the archaic directness of pre-classical Mediterranean sculpture. The strict frontal pose, recalling the kouros and kore tradition of ancient Greece as much as it anticipates the folk-inflected modernism of artists such as Camille Claudel's successors, lends the figure a timeless, votive quality that transcends its mid-twentieth century moment.