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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné sponsored by the Lachaise Foundation, for her assistance in preparing the following catalogue entry for this work.
This bronze plaque, depicting a rapturous female nude, is a unique cast. It is one of a group of bas-reliefs made by Gaston Lachaise between 1906, the year in which he immigrated from France to the United States, and 1917, the year in which he acquired United States citizenship, married Isabel Dutaud Nagle, and completed preparations for the first solo exhibition of his work, to be held at the Bourgeois Galleries, New York City, in early 1918. The reliefs, like many of his other sculptures, were inspired by his wife, and were intended to suggest fundamental, life-enhancing forces by means of a mature woman’s body. Many of the reliefs depict similarly levitating, allegorical figures.
The plaster model for the plaque was probably made while Lachaise worked on the first state of his full-scale model for his early masterwork, Standing Woman (Elevation), which was begun in 1912. The muscular treatment of the woman’s back seen in this relief was already present in that early version of the monumental statue, and suggests a close dependence on the heroic figure. It is likely that the plaster model for the present work was one of a number of sculptures cast in bronze by Lachaise in 1917 in preparation for his 1918 show, but whether the bronze was ever publicly exhibited by him is unknown.
The present relief was acquired by the French artist Emmanuel Centore between 1919 and 1925, likely from the artist himself. Centore was a friend of Lachaise’s friend Albert Gleizes and came to the United States in January 1917 with his family, and both he and his five-year-old daughter Denise exhibited works at the Bourgeois Galleries contemporarily with Lachaise. Lachaise evidently exchanged the present relief for the two early paintings by Denise that he owned by 1920.
The Lachaise Foundation, New York, has given the identification number 311 to this plaque. The plaster model is lost.
This bronze plaque, depicting a rapturous female nude, is a unique cast. It is one of a group of bas-reliefs made by Gaston Lachaise between 1906, the year in which he immigrated from France to the United States, and 1917, the year in which he acquired United States citizenship, married Isabel Dutaud Nagle, and completed preparations for the first solo exhibition of his work, to be held at the Bourgeois Galleries, New York City, in early 1918. The reliefs, like many of his other sculptures, were inspired by his wife, and were intended to suggest fundamental, life-enhancing forces by means of a mature woman’s body. Many of the reliefs depict similarly levitating, allegorical figures.
The plaster model for the plaque was probably made while Lachaise worked on the first state of his full-scale model for his early masterwork, Standing Woman (Elevation), which was begun in 1912. The muscular treatment of the woman’s back seen in this relief was already present in that early version of the monumental statue, and suggests a close dependence on the heroic figure. It is likely that the plaster model for the present work was one of a number of sculptures cast in bronze by Lachaise in 1917 in preparation for his 1918 show, but whether the bronze was ever publicly exhibited by him is unknown.
The present relief was acquired by the French artist Emmanuel Centore between 1919 and 1925, likely from the artist himself. Centore was a friend of Lachaise’s friend Albert Gleizes and came to the United States in January 1917 with his family, and both he and his five-year-old daughter Denise exhibited works at the Bourgeois Galleries contemporarily with Lachaise. Lachaise evidently exchanged the present relief for the two early paintings by Denise that he owned by 1920.
The Lachaise Foundation, New York, has given the identification number 311 to this plaque. The plaster model is lost.