Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935)

'Woman'

Details

Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935)
'Woman'
inscribed 'G. Lachaise © 1933' and stamped 'Lachaise Estate 2/11 MA Cast 92'(along the base)
bronze with brown patina
13½ in. (34.3 cm.) high on a green marble base , 1 in. (2.5 cm.) high

Provenance

The Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts.
Galerie Gerald Piltzer, Paris, France, 1993.
Private collection.

Literature

Museum of Modern Art, Gaston Lachaise: Retrospective Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1935, p. 28, no. 56, another example illustrated (as Woman, 1933).
D. Goodall, Gaston Lachaise: Sculptor, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, vol. I, pp. 576, 661, note 20; vol. II, pp. 448, 309-12, plates CXXXVI-A, B, another example illustrated (as Torso, Arms Akimbo, 1933).
S. Hunter, Lachaise, New York, 1993, pp. iv, 184-187, 244, another example illustrated (as Torso, 1933).

Sale room notice

Please note the correct title for this sculpture is 'Woman.'

Please note this sculpture is stamped 'Cast 92,' not 'Cast 02.'

Please note the following additional information on this lot:
Provenance:
The Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts.
Galerie Gerald Piltzer, Paris, France, 1993.
Private collection.
Literature:
Museum of Modern Art, Gaston Lachaise: Retrospective Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1935, p. 28, no. 56, another example illustrated (as Woman, 1933).
D. Goodall, Gaston Lachaise: Sculptor, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, vol. I, pp. 576, 661, note 20; vol. II, pp. 448, 309-12, plates CXXXVI-A, B, another example illustrated (as Torso, Arms Akimbo, 1933).
Salander O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., Gaston Lachaise: Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1991, pp. 61-62, 83, no. 26, another example illustrated (as Torso, 1933).

Lot Essay

Woman (LF 147) was developed by Gaston Lachaise from a full-length dancing nude begun in 1929 and subsequently truncated at the knees to emphasize the figure's torso. The plaster model was completed by 1933, the year in which it was copyrighted.

The first bronze cast was listed in the catalogue for the artist's retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1935, but not shown. It first appeared in 1937 in a retrospective exhibition organized by Lachaise's widow, Isabel, for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. That cast and another early cast are presently unlocated. Two numbered Estate casts have been made by the Modern Art Foundry for the Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts, the first, in 1991, and the present bronze, in 1992. The plaster model is owned by the Lachaise Foundation.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny for preparing the catalogue entry for this work.

More from Fine American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture

View All