Jeune fille à l'oiseau

In 1967, Emma de Sigaldi produced a first version of the naiad statue in plaster. This statue shows a young water nymph crouching with a little bird on her shoulder. Her smiling face, entirely free of any realistic detail, exudes a sense of joy and calm. The little bird, symbolising the spring, serves to emphasise the bather’s intimate relationship with nature. In 2002, the statue was taken down and shipped to the Fonderia Artistica Versiliese in Pietrasanta, De Sigaldi’s usual foundry, to be moulded and cast in bronze. The new version was installed in 2003.

Emma de Sigaldi, born Emma Lackner in Karlsruhe (Germany) on 22 December 1910, was a Monegasque artist. She first devoted herself to dance in her home town and later in Dresden, with the illustrious Mary Wigman. Appointed as a senior dancer at the Munich Opera, she then went on to open a dance school in Wiesbaden. She trained in sculpture through contact with the Bauhaus masters, and later continued to teach herself.
In 1954, she married Count de Sigaldi, the Captain of the Palace Guards, and moved to Monaco. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1960. In her studio, she focused primarily on figures sculpted in line with an expressionist view, such as The Olympic Diver at the Rainier III Outdoor Swimming Stadium (1961). Already, however, the terracotta Mother , sculpted the same year, heralded what would become the artist’s new approach to her work. Beginning in the 1970s, Sigaldi produced marble sculptures in natural shapes, which reflected the influence of Arp and Moore.
In 1983, a retrospective under the high patronage of Prince Rainier III traced the progression through 25 years of the Monegasque artists’ sculptures. Many of her works can be found in public and private collections in Monaco and throughout the world. Emma de Sigaldi died in Monaco on 23 October 2010.