A very rare pair of grès pottery sculptural candlesticks:
‘The light carried by love’
modeled by Joseph Mendes da Costa in 1901.
The modeled (!) candlesticks show a man and a woman kissing each other, their right arms wrapped around each other’s waist, their left arms raised to hold up the candle. Red-brown grés earthenware with salt glaze, high 23 cm, both marked with the artist’s monogram and one dated 1901.
‘The light carried by love’
A very rare pair of grès pottery sculptural candlesticks:
‘The light carried by love’
modeled by Joseph Mendes da Costa in 1901.
The modeled (!) candlesticks show a man and a woman kissing each other, their right arms wrapped around each other’s waist, their left arms raised to hold up the candle. Red-brown grés earthenware with salt glaze, high 23 cm, both marked with the artist’s monogram and one dated 1901.
In his book ‘ the art of J. Mendes Da Costa ‘ (e.g. Waanders 2014) Louk Tilanus describes these candlesticks very strikingly:
Collectie Centraal Museum Utrecht foto Adriaan van Dam
“With the kiss as a theme, he also modeled an exceptional candlestick – one copy dated 1901 – whose upright is formed by a woman and a man who kiss each other in intimate entanglement, their bodies grow out of the foot. The kiss is a common theme in the art of the late nineteenth century; there are drawings and paintings by Munch, Klimt, ToulouseLautrec, Steinlen and Picasso. In the sculpture, The Kiss of Rodin is the most famous; that of Brancusi in the Paris cemetery Montparnasse stylistically comes closest to that of Mendes. Brancusi’s vertical composition is more stylized and block-based than Mendes’ version. The woman on Mendes’ candlestick has long, sly hair, the man wears a beard and a hat of a fairy prince. A beautiful specimen is located in Utrecht in the Centraal Museum, from Mendes’ great donation in 1928. There the foot, hands and heads are glazed blue. Mendes had this candlestick carried The light by the world[sic],” (page 31/32)
Another copy is in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum : ↓
candlestick-with-figures-the-light-carried-by-the-love-joseph-mendes-da-costa-48735-copyright-kroller-muller-museum
