Emile-Antoine Bourdelle  

 Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861 Montauban, France -1929), French sculptor. He worked primarily on bronze and marble, combining Greek and Gothic elements to form monumental works.

 "Nijinski and Isadora", bronze proof for the relief on the facade of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. "Isadora", relief. Drawing of 1911. Sculpture. Passages from his texts, around 1912.

   In each one of her pauses it seemed to my mind, while watching Madame Isadora Duncan sitting or reclining, that I was taking towards me an ancient marble throbbing with eternity.

   I thought as I watched you: this is Phidias at work.

  When the great Isadora Duncan danced before me, thirty years of my life looking at all the great human masterpieces took suddenly life in her planes mastered from within by all the force of the spirit.

  The dance is probably sweet, but how grave! It is like a meditation, at least I would like it to be so.

  Isadora, bending and throwing back her fine head, closes her eyes to dance within, in her pure emotion. Her hands lightly touch the marble sky. They seem to die and their life flies away in well-conceived plans.

  All my muses in the theater have gestures seized during Isadora's flight; she was my principal source.

  And all of you have recognized her, Isadora Duncan floating in my frieze beside the pensive Apollo whose lyre has dictated her marvelous dance.

  Among the nine different visages which I have been able to distill from many women's faces, it is still she, Isadora, who in my frieze clashes with Isadora, in the frenzy of the hymn or the surrender of the offering.