Maria MARTINS (1894-1973). The Warrior. Bronze signed on the terrace. Height : 14 cm 14 cm - Width : 13,5 cm Black marble base (chips). Provenance : Estate of Mrs Vera SIMOES-BAINVILLE. Maria MARTINS gave this sculpture to her nephew Mr Luis Fernando BOCAYUVA CUNHA on the occasion of his marriage to Mrs Vera SIMOES celebrated on April 20th 1943. When the couple separated, Mr BOCAYUVA CUNHA offered the sculpture to his ex-wife who remarried to Mr Hervé BAINVILLE on 26 June 1986. Eclectic artist of Brazilian origin, it is in the sculpture that Maria Martins is mainly illustrated. Her travels and encounters allow her to learn many techniques. In Japan, she learned ceramics, in Ecuador, she learned woodworking. In Belgium, the expressionist sculptor Oscar Jespers taught her modeling and inspired the simplicity of her wooden figures. In New York, Jacques Lipchitz introduced her to bronze work, which became her favourite material. It was through contact with surrealist artists in exile in the United States such as André Breton, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp that Maria's work was most fruitful. If her technique evolves representing more and more complex, phantasmagorical bodies translated by a sinuous twist of the forms, the subjects remain deeply Brazilian and are attached to the forms and legends of her native Amazonia.