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20th Century, Italian Sculpture by Helen König Scavini, Lenci Manufactory

About the Item

Helen König Scavini, Lenci manufactory "Nude of Woman", e.g. 1927-1936 Signed under the base "Lenci/Italy" Glazed terracotta sizes: H 70 cm x W front 83 cm (W back 55 cm) x D 55 cm The important sculpture, realized in glazed terracotta, is by the famous Lenci Manufactory of Turin (Italy) on model by Helen König Scavini. Of remarkable dimensions, it represents a naked woman, covered of a single cloth to life, sitting with the legs flexed asymmetrically while it supports on the arms with the hands leaned to the plan. The woman has a hieratic expression, big eyebrow arches under which the ethereal eyes are half-closed; the open lips hide a hint of a smile. The loose hair is turned back with big waves on both the head and along the back. The staining of the glazing is on the tones of musky green, which contributes to confer to this woman the appearance of a nymph or a mythological figure. Below the base is found, hand painted, the trademark of the manufacture "Lenci, ITALY". The brand Lenci was registered in Turin on 23 April 1919, sanctioning an activity undertaken some time before by Helen König, wife of the commercial agent Enrico Scavini. The origin of the word Lenci is still controversial today; the earliest bibliography says it derived from a endearment of Elena (Elenchen, as her father called her and that she, stunned him, pronounced Lenci) while the most recent one considers the acrostic Ludus Est Nobis Costanter Industria, perhaps invented by Ugo Ojetti or built as divertissement by the poet Ignazio Vacchetti (Alias Fantasio) on the endearment of Elena. The Lenci manufactory becomes a meeting point for artists and a forge of ideas for the development and realization of dolls and puppets, children’s furniture, and later also artistic ceramics. The first artists to take an active part in the enterprise were Giovanni Riva and Sandro Vacchetti, soon joined by other great names. The success of these felt dolls earned numerous awards to the Lenci Company during the international exhibitions in Zurich, Paris, Rome or Milan. However, the originality of Lenci’s creations was soon put to the test by numerous imitations. To cope with this type of competition, Lenci began to produce artistic ceramics, whose activity began in 1927. The ceramic figures became perhaps even more famous than the dolls in cloth. The subjects ranged from the famous "nudini", the chic little ladies and emancipated women, from fantasy characters to animals, from religious images to the most disparate vases and much more. Many artists collaborated in the realization of the models, among which it is worth mentioning the already mentioned Sandro Vacchetti, artistic director of Lenci from 1922-1934, the same Elena König Scavini, Cläre Burchart, Lino berzoini, Giovanni Riva, Giovanni Ronzan, Deabate Theonesto, Giovanni Pietro Spertini, Marcello Dudovich, Gigi Chessa, Mario Pompei, Nillo Beltrami, Mario Sturani, Giulio Da Milano, Giovanni Grande, Ines Grande, Claudia Formica, Luigi Borione, Camillo Ghigo, Giuseppe Porcheddu, Gino Levi-Montalcini, Abele Jacopi. The magazines of the time bear witness to the artistic value of the ceramics Lenci: from the magazine "Domus" to "Casa Bella", the constant publication of the ceramics Lenci demonstrates the will to impose itself on a select public, cultured and refined. Participation in the exhibitions of the time, from the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts held in Monza in 1923, to the International Exhibition of Paris in 1925, to the National Exhibition in 1928 in Turin, will determine its success. In December 1929 at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan 95 works were exhibited, accompanied by a long presentation by the art critic Ugo Ojetti and testifying to the activity of almost all the artists working for the excavations. Followed the presence of Lenci at the IV International Exhibition of Decorative and Modern Industrial Art in Monza in 1930, which gathered a dizzying positive judgment. The great appreciation of the critics and the attention of the specialized magazines did not save the Lenci from the crisis of the international markets. In 1933 some shares were sold to the Garella family and in 1934 Sandro Vacchetti left the artistic direction of the factory to found his own, Essevi. He was succeeded by Mario Sturani, who remained until 1964, when the production of ceramics stopped. In 1937 the Garella acquired the entirety of the shares of the Lenci maintaining the artistic direction under Elena König, who left the post in 1941, after the death of her husband (1939). In 1992 Lenci Srl was sold to two new companies: the production sector (machinery and equipment in general) was transferred to Bambole Italiane Srl, which went bankrupt in 2002, while the trademarks and patents were sold to WestBay servicos and investimentos in Madeira (Portugal) which today continues its activity regularly. Today the historical ceramics and dolls by Lenci are sought-after collectibles exhibited in museums all-over the world. With the Lenci in Turin happened what in the same years was manifested in the Danish figurative porcelain and the Viennese ceramics of the Wiener Werkstaette: the attempt, perfectly successful, was to produce pottery that had behind it the design of an artist. The ceramic work therefore became a work of art for its own sake, influenced by the artistic and cultural currents of the time. The machining processes inside the lenses are complex and of great refinement. The designs of the ceramics are generally watercolor, tempera or pastel drawings. For the realization of ceramics the methods varied according to the artist. A model in clay was made and then entrusted to the trainer to obtain a negative matrix. From the matrix were obtained few copies of prototypes then decorated under and over the glaze by the most experienced painters under the control of the authors of the model. Based on the success of these first specimens it was decided whether to put the object in production. The processing of plaster was the starting point for production, which could also stop at that stage. The assignment of the model number to the plaster is a sure index of the putting in production of the same one: it gave the physical collocation of the gesso same in the room destined to the forming. The ceramic inherited the number of the model assigned to the plaster, proposed to incusso (that is, signatures, acronyms, monograms and numerical combinations) on the single specimens only from a certain moment of the production. Then there were the methods of marking with a brush and of marking with an incubation of the ceramics, connected to different chronological moments. The written Lenci/Italy is among the very first tests, dated between 1927 and 1928. Of the sculpture under study there is a model in numbered plaster, of smaller dimensions, from which some ceramics are derived, also of similar dimensions to those of the other Lenci porcelain thought as a decorative object. The inventory allows us to identify the author of the subject, Helen König Scavini, and the title, or "Nude". The numbering of the model, 803, makes it possible to date the model between the years 1931 and 1936, among which were recorded the examples from 421 to 1160. Our sculpture, being of great dimensions, could be a prototype, a study of Elena to which they followed the successive small productions. It can be assumed that it could have been produced between 1927 (due to the inscription below) and 1936 (for the numbering of the model). It is also worth noting the existence of another version of the terracotta with the Nuda, gilded, used as an exhibition model for a manufacturer of silk scarves that interprets the design of the historical wrapping paper Lenci, designed by Gigi Chessa. Some information is not mentioned of the sculpture; however, from the image it is possible to deduce that it is of comparable dimensions to the one studied here. Helen König was born in Turin 28 February 1886 to an Austrian mother and a German father. The family moved to the Piedmontese capital in 1885, but the father died very young leaving the family in serious economic difficulties. Her rich personality, her intellectual liveliness and her particular predisposition for art in her various representations lead her to travel a lot in Europe. In 1907 she graduated as a teacher in Düsseldorf, where she met Clare Burchart, a collaborator for the manufacture of Rosethal porcelain, which brought her closer to the world of modeling. The friend became fundamental in 1928 when she was called to collaborate in Turin to provide her excellent experience. Since 1915 Helen returns to Turin, where she meets and marries Enrico Scavini. The eclectic personality of Helen, from the Central European education and from the unbridled curiosity, is catalyzing in order to reunite a cenacle of artists progressively involved in the creation of a true and proper artistic world. The success of his dolls becomes planetary decreeing the affirmation of the name Lenci throughout Europe and America. Hers are beautiful little women coming out of the more or less disciplining cinematographic imagination; Helen designs scenes inspired by mythology or devotion, children or animals portrayed in funny and improbable poses. The style of Helen König Scavini is clearly found in the Nude sculpture. The way in which she interprets the female anatomy, the position of the woman and the features of the face are found in many of her high works. In particular, the head of the woman is very close to the multiple ceramics that Helen draws depicting the nymph calipso. They are female heads haired in a similar way and with the facial features assimilated, though they present some slight variation. In conclusion, the sculpture in this study represents a significant manifestation of the artistic expressiveness of Helen König Scavini, realized in the central years of her maximum fame, between 1927 and 1936. A work that could be considered a capodopera of the artist, certainly of considerable interest, which is added to the corpus of works by König Scavini and the great Turin-based manufacture.

Creator:
Helen Scavini (Artist),Lenci (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 27.56 in (70 cm)Width: 32.68 in (83 cm)Depth: 21.66 in (55 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Terracotta,Glazed
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1927-1936
Condition:
Seller Location:
IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4405218485332
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