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

Hey, I am a cultural time-traveler. How nice that we meet here in virtual space and time. BTW I am not an art historian – nonetheless, my aim is to be correct and transparent about the finding, and not to trust any AI junk. Especially the topic area of Aristide Maillol’s River produces severe mis-information. On the other hand, this page documents the conclusions of my ChronoRecherche.
Enjoy – Matthias MProve, Chrono Research Lab

Several sculptures of La Riviére 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. A museum in Virginia has a lead cast numbered 2/6. 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. Oh sister, now it is getting crowded!

To sum them up: It is possible that we have 8 9 casts in lead and up to 12 + 4 = 16 in bronze. (I hope we do not have to add 4 + 6 + 12 + 4.)
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, 1947 ~ 1950(?) —

Jardins des Tuileries / Le jardin du Carrousel, 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

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

The River

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

The item number is 70.16 – indicating a year of 1970. Then this sculpture might not part of the first 6 castings. But there are no other 6 castings.
Furthermore, a casting date of 1944 is unrealistic. Maillol died in ’44. It took a few years until the first sculptures had been casted. So what’s the provenance of this River?

Kunsthalle Hamburg

Der Fluss

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

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 M. Lucien Maillol in 1951

Middelheim Museum, Antwerp

De riviere (according to park plan)

Cast: lead | collection card | acquired 1951

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: lead | from the 1940s edition! Is this 1/6?

Auction 2013

La Rivière Auction at ARTCURIAL, Paris

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

current location/owner unknown

There are three kinds of mathematicians. One can count. The other not.

Something is odd. 7 – out of an edition of 6! And somehow the creation dates are misleading. Would either Antwerp or the Collection Dina Vierny be the first cast?

Dina Vierny

Aristide Maillol met Dina Vierny in 1934. She became his muse and model until his death in 1944. Later she was an art collector, musician, and in 1995 she founded the Musée Maillol in Paris.
A few media references:

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

We have x/4, x/6 and (further below) x/12. Is this an ever extending edition? Or shall we treat 4 + 6 + 12 as three separate editions?

Thalacker in Zürich

Der Fluss

Cast: bronze Restaurierung 2001 nach Vandalismus

War 2008 – 2011 im Kunsthaus Zürich. /NZZ: Sie badet wieder | Foto im Kunsthaus

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

Barcelona 2009/10

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

Cast: bronze | Collection Dina Vierny, Paris

La Rivière /exhibition on tour Paris, Zürich 2023

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

Sotheby’s Auctions

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. Sold to a private collection in Switzerland.

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

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale / Lot 15, 2019:
Cast: bronze example cast in 2015 as number EA 4/4 (EA = Épreuve d’Artiste) from an edition of 12
sold for Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, for 2mil

This is the only source that mentiones an edition of 12 in 2015. Is it true? Do they all exist (yet)? Where are they?

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