LONDON.- Medardo Rosso is the most famous sculptor you have probably never heard of. Considered by critics of his time as ‘without doubt, the greatest living sculptor’, it is only in relatively recent years that his work is again receiving the acclaim it so justly deserves.

Chiswick Auctions will be offering Medardo Rosso’s wax head of a laughing woman known as ‘Petite Rieuse’ in the forthcoming Fine European Works of Art sale on December 5, 2018. The sculpture was originally sold by the artist’s granddaughter to the important art dealer Philip Granville of Lord’s Gallery in 1965 and is sold with the original invoice. It was sold at the same time as the ‘Grande Rieuse’, which is now in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery. The ‘Petite Rieuse’ featured in the seminal exhibition at the Hayward Gallery ‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’ in 1973 and joins a rarefied group of casts that are in museums across the globe.

Both the ‘Grande Rieuse’ in the Tate Gallery and the ‘Petite Rieuse’ offered by Chiswick Auctions are thought to be posthumous casts by the sculptor’s son, Francesco Rosso, who was authorised to make the casts after the sculptor’s death from his original moulds. On 12th September 2018 Chiswick Auctions sold another Medardo Rosso wax head entitled ‘Bambina Ridente’, which was also a posthumous cast for £180,000 hammer price (£225,000 including buyer’s premium). This ground-breaking result was the highest auction price ever achieved for a Medardo Rosso sculpture catalogued as a posthumous cast; and demonstrated that evidence-based due diligence and transparency when cataloguing more problematic pieces is the best route to achieve strong prices at auction.

The ‘Petite Rieuse’ is estimated at £70,000 – 100,000.