Gaston Herbemont

GASTON HERBEMONT (France, 1883 - ?)
"Buste de jeune fille aux cerises". Art Deco.
White Carrara marble.
Base in Patricia Green marble.
Signed: "G. HERBEMONT".
Measurements: 31 cm (bust height); 14 cm (base height); 45 cm (total height).

Delicate bust in Carrara marble representing a young woman with soft features, captured with a barely hinted smile that brings freshness and naturalness to the whole. The stylization of the hairstyle, treated by means of marked parallel lines and subtle geometrization, places the work fully in the Art Deco aesthetic, where formal synthesis and purity of volumes acquire prominence.

Herbemont combines a polished and smooth modeling of the face -which highlights the youthful smoothness- with a more structured treatment of the hair, generating an elegant contrast between softness and linear rhythm. The simplification of planes and frontality reinforce the modernity of the piece, distancing it from nineteenth-century naturalism and bringing it closer to the refined language of the decorative arts of the interwar period.

Gaston Herbemont was a distinguished French sculptor whose career epitomizes the technical refinement and lyrical sensibility of the interwar period. The choice of noble materials, such as white marble contrasted with ornamental stone bases such as Patricia Green, underscores the exclusivity of his pieces, conceived for the most sophisticated interiors of the time. Today, Herbemont's legacy is appreciated by international collectors as a testimony to the virtuosity and distinction that defined the apogee of 20th century French decorative sculpture.