Herbert Haseltine (1877-1962)

'Percheron', A Bronze Figure of the Stallion Rhum

Details

Herbert Haseltine (1877-1962)
'Percheron', A Bronze Figure of the Stallion Rhum
inscribed '© HASELTINE MCMXXX-V' and 'PERCHERON'
14½in. (37cm.) high, including original Bardiglio marble base, greenish black patina with applied goldleaf and inlaid lapus lazuli and onyx

Provenance

Conner-Rosenkranz, New York

Literature

J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 48

Comparative Literature
Field Museum of Natural History, Sculptures by Herbert Haseltine of Champion Domestic Animals of Great Britain, Zoology leaflet 13, Chicago, 1934, cat. no. 4
A.T.E. Gardner, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greenwich, 1965, p. 134
Whitney Museum of American Art, 200 Years of American Sculpture, New York, 1976, pp. 140, 340, cat. no. 93, pl. 39

Exhibited

Newark, New Jersey, The Newark Museum, American Bronze Sculpture, October 18, 1984-February 3, 1985, cat. no. 40

Lot Essay

Percheron was conceived as part of a series of British champion animals that Haseltine worked on from 1921-1924. The artist travelled around Great Britain modeling the animals from life and later refined the models in his Paris studio. Haseltine's study of ancient art--Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, and Chinese--greatly influenced the figures in this series. Not only were the forms simplified and slightly stylized, but the artist experimented with different types of patinas, as in the present combination of gilding and silvering.

An example carved of Bardiglio marble, which was part of the commission of champion domestic animals of Great Britain ordered by Marshall Field for the Field Museum of Natural History, is now in the Paul Mellon Collection, Virginia Museum of Arts, Richmond, Virginia.