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 catalogue entry for this work.
Although the forms of the ideal head in Gaston Lachaise’s larger-than-life marble Head of Woman [LF 67] are highly simplified, they nonetheless evoke a living, breathing person. While the woman’s elongated, nearly closed eyelids suggest that her thoughts are directed inward, her smiling, slightly pursed lips animate her otherwise passive, tranquil expression and invite the viewer’s prolonged engagement with her. These qualities entranced Lorna J. Marshall, the first owner of the sculpture, as she explained to Lachaise immediately after purchasing it: “I loved the marble, the light on it, the curving lines of it, the joy in the lips, the quietness in the face—everything.” (letter to Gaston Lachaise, May 9, 1928)
One of a number of large, ideal heads of a woman carved in stone or marble by Lachaise, Head of Woman [LF 67] most closely compares to his marble Head of Woman [LF 294], of 1923 (unlocated). A principal difference is the loosely falling curls of the earlier work, whereas in the present sculpture it is worn in a tight, public-facing roll. Another difference is that the overall composition in the present example is now more compact, stylized and self-contained.
The present head appears to have been carved by Lachaise without the aid of a preliminary model and mechanical aids. Instead, he envisaged the composition within a slab of marble by cutting directly into his material in a way that both reveals the subject and implies the slab’s original, irregular shape. This technique, which differed from that of many of his peers, had been employed by Lachaise since at least 1917 when carving three heads in sandstone or marble. It was first described by collector and art critic Albert Gallatin:
“Lachaise always chisels these [massive] heads himself, occasionally directly from the stone or marble, without first modeling them in clay—the latter quite a feat. Naturally, this contact with the material is absolutely essential if the sculptor desires any quality in his work, necessary, indeed, if he wishes it to be considered an original work of art. That the vast majority of contemporary sculptors elect to have their works cast in plaster, pointed up, and then mechanically reproduced by a man who makes a profession of doing this, simply puts such work in the same class as copies.” (Gaston Lachaise: Sixteen Reproductions in Collotype of the Sculptor’s Work, New York, 1924, p. 10)
Gallatin similarly praised Lachaise’s use of selectively applied color in sculptures such as the previously mentioned Head of Woman [LF 294], which is patinated like Head of Woman [LF 67]:
“Lachaise often stains or gilds portions of his marble and stone heads, as did the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Gothic sculptors, and it is to be hoped that other sculptors will make experiments similar to these, uniting color with form.” (Gaston Lachaise, p. 10)
Gallatin’s keen response to those large stone heads indicates how Lachaise’s expressive approach to sculpting and his exploration of coloristic effects, as in the present example, helped to secure his role as a preeminent modernist American sculptor.
The title of the present head—and others like it—refers to Lachaise’s ideal, vital, self-actualizing Woman. The identifying number LF 67 has been assigned to the work by the Lachaise Foundation.
Although the forms of the ideal head in Gaston Lachaise’s larger-than-life marble Head of Woman [LF 67] are highly simplified, they nonetheless evoke a living, breathing person. While the woman’s elongated, nearly closed eyelids suggest that her thoughts are directed inward, her smiling, slightly pursed lips animate her otherwise passive, tranquil expression and invite the viewer’s prolonged engagement with her. These qualities entranced Lorna J. Marshall, the first owner of the sculpture, as she explained to Lachaise immediately after purchasing it: “I loved the marble, the light on it, the curving lines of it, the joy in the lips, the quietness in the face—everything.” (letter to Gaston Lachaise, May 9, 1928)
One of a number of large, ideal heads of a woman carved in stone or marble by Lachaise, Head of Woman [LF 67] most closely compares to his marble Head of Woman [LF 294], of 1923 (unlocated). A principal difference is the loosely falling curls of the earlier work, whereas in the present sculpture it is worn in a tight, public-facing roll. Another difference is that the overall composition in the present example is now more compact, stylized and self-contained.
The present head appears to have been carved by Lachaise without the aid of a preliminary model and mechanical aids. Instead, he envisaged the composition within a slab of marble by cutting directly into his material in a way that both reveals the subject and implies the slab’s original, irregular shape. This technique, which differed from that of many of his peers, had been employed by Lachaise since at least 1917 when carving three heads in sandstone or marble. It was first described by collector and art critic Albert Gallatin:
“Lachaise always chisels these [massive] heads himself, occasionally directly from the stone or marble, without first modeling them in clay—the latter quite a feat. Naturally, this contact with the material is absolutely essential if the sculptor desires any quality in his work, necessary, indeed, if he wishes it to be considered an original work of art. That the vast majority of contemporary sculptors elect to have their works cast in plaster, pointed up, and then mechanically reproduced by a man who makes a profession of doing this, simply puts such work in the same class as copies.” (Gaston Lachaise: Sixteen Reproductions in Collotype of the Sculptor’s Work, New York, 1924, p. 10)
Gallatin similarly praised Lachaise’s use of selectively applied color in sculptures such as the previously mentioned Head of Woman [LF 294], which is patinated like Head of Woman [LF 67]:
“Lachaise often stains or gilds portions of his marble and stone heads, as did the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Gothic sculptors, and it is to be hoped that other sculptors will make experiments similar to these, uniting color with form.” (Gaston Lachaise, p. 10)
Gallatin’s keen response to those large stone heads indicates how Lachaise’s expressive approach to sculpting and his exploration of coloristic effects, as in the present example, helped to secure his role as a preeminent modernist American sculptor.
The title of the present head—and others like it—refers to Lachaise’s ideal, vital, self-actualizing Woman. The identifying number LF 67 has been assigned to the work by the Lachaise Foundation.