Marino Marini
Made the horse and rider his single subject, and watched the rider gradually fall off.
Marino Marini was born at Pistoia in 1901 and trained in Florence, drawing on Etruscan and archaic sculpture rather than on the classical tradition. From the 1930s he worked almost exclusively on one motif — a horse with a rider — which he repeated for four decades as the rider's seat became less secure, the arms flung wider, the horse's neck more rigid, until in the post-war versions the figure is falling or already thrown. He read it explicitly as an image of the century. He also made portrait heads of exceptional quality, including Stravinsky and Chagall, and died in 1980.
Bronzes exist in editions, often small, and cast number, foundry, lifetime or posthumous casting and above all the surface are what a valuation turns on: Marini frequently painted, waxed and worked his bronzes by hand after casting, so no two are quite alike and repatination destroys precisely what makes a good example good. Unauthorised posthumous casts are a known problem and the Fondazione Marino Marini and the Marini estate archive are the references. Polychrome plasters and terracottas are unique, fragile and sought. There is a substantial output of drawings and lithographs.
If you own a work by Marino Marini
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.