Manolo lived in Paris between 1901 and 1909, and met Jeanne de Rochette, also known as Totote, toward the end of this Parisian period: “From then on, Totote shared his joys and his pains, served as his model when he needed one, and always knew how to give him the encouragement and the confidence in himself and in his art that he needed.”[2] They were married around 1910.

 

There are three small figures of Totote from this period. The first is a Figure en position génu-pectoral (Figure in a Genupectoral Pose—crouched forward with the knees under the chest)[3] (1907-1909) with modernist curves; the second is Totote nue, which was done at the same time as Totote clothed: “[…] he created a curious little figure of a woman no more than nine centimeters tall (Mas Manolo collection, Caldas). Its compact and precise volume displayed a knowledge of Egyptian and Mesopotamian statuary.”[4]

 

These two works, reproduced in publications dedicated to Manolo, are highlights of his early career; both versions were also done in terracotta. In 1912, he lived with his wife at Céret, and portrayed her twice, once in a wash drawing (private collection) and once in a bronze bust (Paris, musée national d’art moderne, on loan to the musée de Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle in Calais). A photographic portrait of Totote by Paul Burty Haviland testifies to her physiognomy at the time.[5]Though Manolo’s style became more geometric and cubist, more sinuous and voluptuous, he stayed with the same themes and postures—women sitting, crouching, or bending over, and his 1914 Crouching Woman can be seen as a stylistic extension of Totote.

 

Between 1912 and 1933, Manolo was under contract to Kahnweiler, the result of negotiations between the two men that had begun in 1910. According to their agreement, all Manolo’s creations went to the dealer in exchange for a monthly stipend. Manolo was the only sculptor represented by Kahnweiler until 1920, when Henri Laurens joined this select group. Kahnweiler’s commercial activities were suspended during the 1914-1918 war, and he reopened his gallery in 1920 at a new address, 29 rue d’Astorg, and under a new name, the Galerie Simon (the name of his partner). Its name changed again in 1940, this time to the Galerie Louise Leiris (the name of his niece). Manolo dropped his contract with Kahnweiler in 1933, when the dealer had to reduce his monthly stipend as a result of the 1929 crash.

 

Thanks to research done by Elisabeth Lebon, a specialist in bronze founders, we know that Kahnweiler, following the practice that another dealer, Ambroise Vollard, had adopted for Maillol’s works, asked the founder Florentin Godard to edit bronzes by Picasso, Manolo, and Laurens. Elisabeth Lebon’s research shows that their collaboration began in November, 1911:[6] “In an apparently unsystematic way, and only recently discovered,[7] Kahnweiler asked Florentin Godard to mark the proofs that he ordered in ways that would not be visible to the viewer (either on the back of reliefs or on the inside of pieces in the round), with the numbering always in Roman numerals and often accompanied by his initials HK,[8] which were done in relief. They indicate, without a doubt, that this is an old cast from the artist’s lifetime, as the last time Kahnweiler gave an order to Florentin Godard was in April 1929.” Like all the proofs made under Kahnweiler’s direction from the time that he first began his limited editions, our proof is not signed by Manolo. It carries the initials KH followed by the number VII in relief on the inside.

 

The date of the cast of the proof of Totote described here can be estimated, giving a large window, as between 1911 and 1929. But more precisely, it probably dates from the very beginning of Manolo’s and Kahnweiler’s collaboration, which is to say, around 1912.[9]

[1] It has a label from the Galerie Simon under the base: “GALERIE SIMON, 29 bis rue d’Astorg, PARIS 8e / 1909 / n°6077 3 / Nu accroupi (30) / Manolo”

[2] 1974, BLANCH, p. 20.

[3] 1974, BLANCH, p. 22, n°6, repr.

[4] 1974, BLANCH, p. 20.

[5] 2005 RAMON, p.68. (Manolo and Totote met Frank Burty Haviland, the brother of the photographer Paul Burty Haviland, who took the bust-length photograph, in 1908 in. 1974 BLANCH, n°5 / The portrait of Totote by Paul B. Haviland is dated 1912 in. 1992 BLANCH, p.11 / In 1912, the portrait of Totote by Paul Haviland was published in Camera Work along with a drawing of Totote by Manolo.)

[6] Elisabeth Lebon, article “Laurens and the Bronze” in Henri Laurens, Wellentöchter / Daughters of the Waves, exhibition catalogue, Bremen, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, Sept. 30, 2018 to Jan. 13, 2019, Mannheim, Kunsthalle, March 1 to June 16, 2018, Arie Hartog, Ulrike Lorenz Editions.

[7] As far as we know, no publication has yet studied this particular practice, which we have also observed on the example of Picasso’s Verre d’absinthe (Glass of Absinthe) held at the MoMA (where the initials HK are backwards, no doubt an error of Godard’s, who had not thought to invert the initials on the mold), as well as on several reliefs by Manolo and in the simple numbering on the Laurens.

[8] Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was called Henry. In addition, the small round of the D could weaken the sand of the mold, which could also explain the choice of Roman numerals, all composed of straight lines.

[9] 1929 EXPOSITION, n°6: an exhibition at the Galerie Simon in 1929 included a bronze of Totote dated 1912.