Fine Arts
Choose a subcategory

Select the beginning and end dates of the desired period

1809
2024

See the results

Art Public

Ville de Montréal

Sort
{"title":"Bureau d'Art Public - Ville de Montr\u00e9al | The First Jewel","thisUrl":"https:\/\/artpublic.ville.montreal.qc.ca\/en\/oeuvre\/the-first-jewel\/","body_class":"blog artpublic adapt jsonStored single-artwork query-off ap-no-toolbar","query_hud":null,"alternate_url":"https:\/\/artpublic.ville.montreal.qc.ca\/oeuvre\/the-first-jewel\/"}
Share
Share
Alice Winant

The First Jewel

1973
Presentation of the artwork
The First Jewel is a sculpture installed in the rose garden at the Botanical Garden of Montréal. This full-round bronze covered with a dark patina portrays a bare-chested young woman wearing a scarf on her head and a draped piece of fabric serving as a dress. Her bent arms held in front of her originally held a pearl necklace between the two hands. Whereas the figure’s skin is quite textured, the fabrics are smooth and realistically rendered.

In this work, the dream world and reality come together in a figure who doesn’t show obvious emotion but is lost in her dreams. Winant’s sculpture thus expresses the moments of reflection that punctuate and brighten up everyday reality.

The work is exemplary of Winant’s early creative period, in which her bronzes often portrayed figures linked to family, many of them female and dressed in draped fabric. Like the figure in The First Jewel, these figures do not have very expressive faces but exude a sense of peace and tranquillity.
Associated events
After she had exhibitions at the Dominion Gallery and the Four Seasons Hotel, The First Jewel was installed on the terrace at city hall, at the request of Montréal mayor Jean Drapeau, in 1980. After Winant died, in 1989, her heirs offered the artwork as a gift in memory of the artist to the Ville de Montréal, which gave it a permanent home in the Botanical Garden.
Alice Winant
Alice Winant was born in 1928 in Romania, where she worked as a photographer until she was incarcerated at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen in 1944. After she was liberated in 1945, she studied sculpture with Carl Helbig in Stockholm. She then decided to move to Canada in 1953, but it wasn’t until 1968, when she was 40, that she began her sculpture practice.

Her work is now included in a number of private collections in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Details
Variation of title
La femme au collier
Category
Fine Arts
Subcategory
Sculpture
Collection name
Public art
Date completed
1973
Mode of acquisition
Donation
Accession date
December 7, 1990
Technique(s)
Cast
Materials
Bronze
General dimensions
172 x 115 x 70 cm
Manufacturer
  • Artcast Foundry
The First Jewel
Borough
Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie
Building
Jardin botanique
Park
Jardin botanique
Civic address
4101, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, Québec, H1X 2B2