# Creation process

Georges Lacombe's sculptural technique is inspired by a prehistoric method of cutting up tree trunks and roughing them with an axe, an adze and then a gouge. Gradually, and by varying the instruments dedicated to sculpture, the artist refined the whole. Influenced by Gauguin, Lacombe uses the "direct carving" process. This method, also used since prehistoric times, takes into account the initial shape of the block of wood and then carves it. On the other hand, the choice of wood as the main material once again bears witness to the influence of Gauguin, who advocated the use of a "humble and modest" material, as opposed to stone or marble, but also illustrates this desire to return to the sculptural art of prehistory, where there is a desire to physically confront these materials. This marks a return to bygone practices in the history of sculpture, with the idea of regressing in technique as part of an artistic quest linked to the primitivist movement.

A year before creating the final work, in 1896, he produced a model for it: a painted plaster Mary Magdalene. Today, it is conserved in Bremen, Germany.

Georges Lacombe, Mary Magdalene, 1896,
painted plaster, Bremen, Kunsthalle
source: Ibex73, 2018, via Wikicommons
CC BY-SA 4.0 license

The museum notice is available here