'Undine Receiving Her Soul', A White Marble Figure of a Water Nymph

Details

Chauncey Bradley Ives (1810-1894)
'Undine Receiving Her Soul', A White Marble Figure of a Water Nymph
signed 'C.B.IVES.FECIT.ROMAE.'
49¼in. (125 cm.) high, on Brescian marble pedestal 30in. (76.2cm.) high

Provenance

Sale: New York, Christie's, December 9, 1983, lot 72

Literature

W. Craven, Sculpture in America, New York, 1968, pp. 286-287, fig. 8.13
W. Gerdts, "Chauncey Bradley Ives, American Sculptor", The Magazine Antiques, November, 1968, pp. 714-718
W. Gerdts, American Neo-Classic Sculpture, New York, 1973, pp. 41, 88, 89, fig. 73
The Magazine Antiques, March 1982, cover illus.
J.S. Kasson, Marble Queens and Captives: Women in Nineteenth Century American Sculpture, New Haven, 1990, pp. 169-173

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, 1976-1983

Lot Essay

The literary source for the subject of the present marble was a novel by Baron de la Motte-Fouqué, published in New York in 1823. Undine, or the Spirit of the Waters: a Melodramatic Romance told the story of a water nymph who became enamored of a mortal. Rejected by her suitor after receiving a soul and thus becoming mortal herself, Undine ultimately caused his death. Yet the figure is not depicted by Ives as a vengeful spirit, rather as a romantic victim.

The present marble is one of five examples of the first version of Undine carved by Ives between 1855 and 1859. One was purchased by Marshall O. Roberts, a prominent collector and the father of the model for the nymph. Another was purchased by the Western Academy of Art. A larger example was donated to the Yale University Art Gallery. In 1880, Ives reworked the model, and sculpted ten examples of this second version.