Bibliography
René Berger, Jacques Monnier-Raball et alii, André Lasserre, Denges-Lausanne, Éditions du Verseau, 1981.
René Gimpel, Journal d’un collectionneur marchand de tableaux, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1963 : 315-316.
Louis Vauxcelles, Huit sculptures et quarante dessins d’André Lasserre, exh. cat. Paris, Galerie Zborowski, 1928
André Lasserre began his career in Paris as a student of Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière before moving to Lausanne in 1951 and turning to constructivist abstraction. While in Paris in the early 1920s, he attracted attention on the lively art scene in Montparnasse for his drawings and sculptures of animals, based on long hours of study at the Musée de l’Homme and the Jardin des Plantes. In 1926 and 1928, he held two solo exhibitions at the Galerie Zborowski on the rue de Seine.
He caught the eye of collectors, including the renowned art dealer René Gimpel, who left an account of his visits to Lasserre’s studio. Gimpel saw him as a rising star, noting the Japanese influence in his brush drawings on tissue paper. Most of all he admired Lasserre’s skill as a sculptor, singling out the succession of planes and his mastery of volume for praise. He was particularly struck by this Panther, writing on 14 May 1927, “his wood panther has deformed the line to achieve the volume” and “the wood is as heavy as marble. He was at infinite pains with it. When he hit the concentric circles in the wood, he had to follow them and carve them one by one, contrariwise each time, following one groove to the right and another to the left”.
Like Charles Despiau, an artist Lasserre admired greatly, he strove to avoid shades and dips. Like Paul Jouve and François Pompon, he sought a synthetic approach that would translate the creature’s vital energy and powerful muscles. He shared the typical Art Deco love of hard, brightly coloured materials such as porphyry, Lezinnes yellow limestone, and in this case, amboyna burl wood.