Bourdelle, Émile Antoine [key], 1861–1929, French sculptor; son of a cabinetmaker of Montauban. He went to Paris in 1884, where he studied successively under Falguière, Dalou, and Rodin. Bourdelle differed sharply from Rodin in his preoccupation with the relation of sculpture to architecture. Seeking his inspiration in archaic Greece and the Gothic, he achieved his greatest success in heroic and monumental works such as Hercules, of which there is a cast in the Metropolitan Museum; his colossal Virgin of Alsace; his bas-reliefs for the Théâtre des Champs Élysées; and his monument to Americans who died in World War I (Pointe de Grave). He is also noted for his numerous portrait heads.
See study by I. Jianu (1966).
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