Henri Laurens, Undines

Henri Laurens
Undines

Henri Laurens (French, 1885–1954) trained as a sculptor in Paris in 1899–1906. Introduced to Cubism in 1911 by his friend, the artist Georges Braque, Laurens was swept away by this style of art, which dominated Paris of the 1910s. Gradually Laurens replaced Cubism with his own idiom, which was characterised by mature, full-bodied, rhythmically rendered forms with motifs garnered from the sea and mythology. Laurens was first presented for a Swedish audience in an influential 1938 group exhibition with Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, which toured Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. The sea was a major source of inspiration for Laurens, perhaps because he had to wait until he was 47 before he finally got to see it. Through his art he explored an imaginary sea and the movements of its creatures. A recurring character was a female figure, lying on one side with her arms and legs floating upwards as a plant whose leaves reach for the surface.

Undines (lead, 1934, acquired 1951) are mythological, female personifications of waves. The figures lie resting next to one another, carried by the softly rounded crests of the waves at the small lily pond. Together they appear to create waves through their rolling movements.