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Lot Essay
An accomplished rider from childhood, Herbert Haseltine continued as a young man to pursue equestrian sports, including polo. Indeed, when he finally established himself as a young sculptor in a Paris studio, the artist arranged for his thoroughbred, Make Haste, to be sent to France to serve as his model. Among his first successful sculptures was a group of polo players that he exhibited and cast in 1906. For the next half a century, Haseltine would produce a steady output of equestrian and animal sculptures, which brought to him a lifetime of acclaim.
The origin of Lakshmi and Indra began with Haseltine's visit in 1938 to India, which he had visited once before in 1925 at the invitation of the Majaraja of Nawanager. While there on his second trip, he modeled the two stallions, casting them the same year in bronze. Later he conceived a much more dramatic realization of these prize horses. According to a catalog entry from the 1953 exhibition at Frank Partridge Gallery (London), "Haseltine reworked these heads, paring them down to a highly finished simplicity and making 'detailed designs for the jewels and other ornaments, inspired by Indian miniatures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.' Apparently, Haseltine completed all the preliminary work on the sculptures and hoped for a patron who could afford to have the project carried out as intended. In the late 1940s [the] American heiress Barbara Hutton gave Haseltine his chance." (J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 50). At the Bedi-Rassy Foundry in New York, the heads were cast, chased, gilt and ornamented with diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, garnets, and jade, producing these remarkable casts, which rank among the most opulent and elegant sculptures ever produced by an American artist.
The origin of Lakshmi and Indra began with Haseltine's visit in 1938 to India, which he had visited once before in 1925 at the invitation of the Majaraja of Nawanager. While there on his second trip, he modeled the two stallions, casting them the same year in bronze. Later he conceived a much more dramatic realization of these prize horses. According to a catalog entry from the 1953 exhibition at Frank Partridge Gallery (London), "Haseltine reworked these heads, paring them down to a highly finished simplicity and making 'detailed designs for the jewels and other ornaments, inspired by Indian miniatures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.' Apparently, Haseltine completed all the preliminary work on the sculptures and hoped for a patron who could afford to have the project carried out as intended. In the late 1940s [the] American heiress Barbara Hutton gave Haseltine his chance." (J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 50). At the Bedi-Rassy Foundry in New York, the heads were cast, chased, gilt and ornamented with diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, garnets, and jade, producing these remarkable casts, which rank among the most opulent and elegant sculptures ever produced by an American artist.