Bookmaker

Born in Turin, Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) moved in 1870 to Milan, where he briefly attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (1882-1883) and began his artistic career within the Milanese Scapigliatura. In 1889, he moved permanently to Paris, where, after initial economic difficulties, he established himself on the circuit of official exhibitions and private collecting. Eugène Marin, the son-in-law of the wealthy industrialist and collector Henri Rouart, is the model for the sculpture "Bookmaker". Horse racing enthusiast Marin leans on a stick while clutching binoculars in his right hand at the Auteuil racecourse. Interested in the representation of the whole figure, Medardo Rosso deforms and translates the forms of the body into an impression, fixing in an instantaneous perception a sculpture free from the all-round that imposes itself on the viewer from a single point of view. The cut from below and the dynamic diagonal progression elicit an impression of vitality despite the fact that the figure is firmly anchored to the ground. The wax is modeled with touches that suggest the interpenetration of the material with the environment.