mprove design, 2026

Where in the World are the sculptures La Rivière (The River) by Aristide Maillol?

Disclaimer: I am a cultural time-traveler, not at art historian. Nonetheless My aim is to be correct about the finding, and don’t trust any AI junk. It is a ChronoRecherche in progress.

Several sculptures have been casted in lead or bronze. Under humid weather conditions lead develops a powder white surface, while bronze contains copper that turns green over time. The exact number of editions and casts is uncertain.

The first edition was casted after the death of Maillol in the late 1940s. There is a numbered 2/6 lead cast in Virginia. According to the creation years this must be the first. But then something else is odd. See details and locations below.

St. Louis purchased her bronze River in 2007. It has the number 3/4.
The bronze casts numbered 4/6 (Houston, 2016) and 5/6 (Sotheby’s 2014) seem to be from a later edition.

A bronze cast nunbered EA 4/4 (EA = Épreuve d’Artiste) surfaced in 2019. Sotheby’s writes: example cast in 2015 as number EA 4/4 from an edition of 12.

To sum them up: It is possible that we have 8 casts in lead and up to 4 + 6 + 12 + 4 = 26(!) in bronze
A comprehensive inventory does not exist yet. On this page we have assembled 12, maybe 14. Follow the ChronoScroll to track known locations of La Rivière.

First Edition in LEAD

— edition of 6, 1944 ~ 1950(?) —

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

The River

Cast: lead 1944, numbered 2/6 | collection card | insta | insta2

Jardins des Tuileries, Paris

La Rivière

Cast: lead 1947, unnumbered | Musée d'Orsay collection card

Dina Vierny herself managed to move 20 Maillol sculptures into the Carrousel garden of the Louvre. /via

Kunsthalle Hamburg

Der Fluss

Cast: lead 1947 (source), unnumbered | Kunsthalle collection card Inv. Nr.: S-1953-12 | insta

MoMa NewYork

The River

Cast: lead unnumbered, 1948 | MoMa collection card | purchased 1949

Jardin De Sculptures à Bruxelles

La Rivière

Cast: lead 1950 | collection card | purchased from Acquise de M. Lucien Maillol in 1951

Middelheim Museum, Antwerp

De riviere (according to park plan)

Cast: lead | collection card | acquired 1951

Somehow the sculpture 1/6 is missing, or the creation dates are misleading. If the list is complete then Antwerp is a candidate for the very first cast.

Later editions in Lead

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA

The River

Cast: lead | collection card | gifted 1970

Skylands, Northeast Harbor, Maine

The River

Cast: lead | private collection | insta

Bronze

Citygarden St. Louis

The River

Cast: bronze numbered 3/4 | collection card ; purchased in 2007 | insta | insta 2 | insta 3

Museum of Fine Arts Houston

The River

Cast: bronze numbered 4/6 | collection card | acquired from Dina Vierny, Paris in 2016

Thalacker in Zürich

Der Fluss

Cast: bronze Restaurierung 2001 nach Vandalismus

War 2008 – 2011 im Kunsthaus Zürich. /NZZ: Sie baded wieder

Auf zum kulturellen Outdoor-Workout! Am Talacker legen wir eine Matte auf den Brunnenrand, nehmen die Position der «Rivière» ein und halten diese 30 Sekunden lang. Die Übung wird zehnmal wiederholt und stärkt Rumpf und Hals. /via

Portland Art Museum

The River /temporarily loaned from a private collection, 2012 ~ 2014

Cast: bronze | current owner and location unknown

Many thanks to Grace Gungadee from the Portland Art Museum for her support on this research project!

Collection Dina Vierny

Musée Maillol, Paris /1995

La Rivière at The Museum Maillol, 1995 | cf. Фильм Ольги Свибловой «Дина Верни» (portrait of Dina Vierny) – at 48' 20"

Cast unknown maybe lead | current location/owner unknown.

La Rivière /exhibition on tour Paris, Zürich 2023

Cast: plaster | insta 1944 | insta 2023a | insta 2023b | exhibition in Zurich

Barcelona 2009/10

El Riu /temporary exhibition 10/2009 – 1/2010 in Barcelona

Cast: bronze | Collection Dina Vierny, Paris

Dina Vierny & Aristide Maillol – Lei Aznavour

Interview with Dina Vierny, NPR 2008

RADIOSCOPIE - Jacques Chancel reçoit Dina Vierny (1975)

Dina Vierny (Moldavia) - Bodaibo (1975)

Auctions

2013

La Rivière at ARTCURIAL, Paris

Cast: lead – from the 1940s edition!

Maillol's La Riviere –from the Collection Dina Vierny– was sold at Artcurial/Sotheby’s in 12/2013 for € 6 mil by Bruno Jaubert

2014

The River at its former location at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England | info post

Cast: bronze numbered 5/6 | Sotheby’s info card

inscribed Aristide Maillol, numbered 5/6 and stamped with the foundry mark E Godard Fondeur Paris

La Rivière was originally conceived as a monument sculpture to French philosopher, politician and renowned pacifist Henri Barbusse. Maillol modelled a woman stabbed in the back and falling downwards, perhaps shielding herself from her aggressors with her up-thrust arms, as an inverse celebration of Barbusse's pacifying ideals. When the commission fell through, Maillol developed the sculpture into a personification of swelling water. In this light, the natural, unchecked energies of the river comes to mirror the social and political uncertainties of the mid-twentieth century. Maillol conceived this work two years before the beginning of the Second World War, when tensions and troubles were coming to a head. /via Sotheby’s info card

2015

Someone payed 2 million dollars in 2019:
Cast: bronze example cast 2015 number EA 4/4 (EA = Épreuve d’Artiste) from an edition of 12
sold by Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris

Reflections

In 2016, Swiss artist Urs Fischer exhibited a replica of Maillol's 'La Rivière' at the JTT gallery in New York. It was made out of modeling clay, so that visitors could touch and deconstruct the work. / 3 photos via insta

References