Charles Henri Molins

CHARLES HENRI MOLINS (1893-1958).
"The Skier of St. Moritz," c. 1930.
Patinated bronze; ivory; white marble; Portoro marble.
Signed.
Measurements: 53 x 40 x 27 cm.

An interesting work within the production of Charles Henri Molins, this sculpture condenses and exemplifies the modern fascination for sport, which during the Art Decó era ceased to be understood only as an aristocratic entertainment to become a symbol of the essential values of modernity: energy, discipline, dynamism, health, competitiveness and physical beauty. France was one of the great epicenters of this phenomenon, and art immediately incorporated this new exaltation of the body and movement.

Sculpture executed in patinated bronze on a base of white marble and Portoro marble. The work represents a skier in full descent, with the body leaning towards the slope, the poles in position and the knees bent in a posture characteristic of competitive skiing. The patina of the bronze establishes a deliberate contrast with the base, conceived diagonally to evoke the inclination of the snowy slope.

Molins inscribes his work in that current of sports sculpture that Art Deco cultivated with particular intensity during the interwar period, when the athletic body in movement became one of the central themes.

The title refers to Saint Moritz, an enclave that constitutes the historical epicenter of Alpine winter tourism. It was there in September 1864 that hotelier Caspar Badrutt made his famous wager with four British guests, laying the foundations for what was to become a new form of aristocratic leisure that would forever transform the relationship of European elites with the mountain landscape. The enclave recorded successive milestones that consolidated its pioneering position: the first installation of electric light in Switzerland in 1878, the first continental curling tournament in 1880, the first European ice skating championships in 1882, the first Alpine golf tournament in 1889 and the founding of the first Swiss ski school in 1929. Saint Moritz hosted the 1928 Winter Olympic Games, a fact that certified its status as the world capital of snow sports and the favorite stage of an international society that found in the mountains the perfect synthesis between physical vigor and social distinction.