Bourdelle, Emile Antoine (1861-1929)

French sculptor and designer. His style, drawing strongly on the works of Auguste Rodin and then on Greek art, had a profound influence on French monumental sculpture. Among his monuments are The Virgin of Alsace and Rodin at Work on the Gates of Hell.

Bourdelle trained at Toulouse and Paris, his first notable work being Adam After the Fall, exhibited 1883. He was an assistant to Rodin 1893-1908, and many of his early works have Rodin's expressive naturalism. As early as 1900, however, he was moving towards a smoother, more restrained style influenced by classical sculpture. In 1912 he carved reliefs, inspired by the dancing of Vaslav Nijinsky and Isadora Duncan, for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. His portraits include busts of Scottish anthropologist James Frazer 1922 (Tate Gallery, London) and over 20 busts of the composer Beethoven. He also designed tapestries for the Gobelins factory.