Paul Manship 1885 - 1966

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1986

New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Studio Selections of American Sculpture 1811-1941, 1986, p. 55, no. 34b, illustrated in color

House and Garden, June 1921, p. 62, illustration of another example
Paul Vitry, Paul Manship, Sculpteur Americain, 1927, p. 38, pls. 31-32, illustration of another example (in bronze)
E. Murtha, Paul Manship, New York, 1957, p. 152, nos. 51-52
A.E. Gardner, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 151, no. 48.149.28, illustration of another example (in bronze)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1985, pp. 136-37, nos. 97-98, illustration of another example (in bronze)
J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, pp. 135, 138-39, illustration of another example (in bronze)
J. Manship, Paul Manship, New York, 1989, p. 54, illustrated fig. 45, pp. 67-69, figs. 60-61, illustration of another example (in bronze)
H. Rand, Paul Manship, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 40-41, figs. 26-27, illustration of another example (in bronze)
Denver Art Museum, Shaping the West: American Sculptors of the 19th Century, Denver, Colorado, 2010, p. 9, illustration of another example (in bronze)

Indian and Pronghorn Antelope, according to John Manship, the artist's son, is almost certainly a unique sterling silver cast of this subject. The sculpture also exists in bronze and was cast in an edition of 15. Eleven of the bronze editions are in museum collections, most notably the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Only three other works by Manship are known in silver: Pekinese Dog, 1931; Persian Cat, 1931; and Seal of Missouri, 1946.

Recognized as an emerging talent at the young age of 24, Paul Manship was awarded a three year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. While there, he developed a pronounced appreciation for Archaic Greek art, defined by its naturalistic style, which reflected influence from Egypt and India. Drawing on this tradition for inspiration, Manship translated these principles into a unique vision that bridged the gap between traditional and modern aesthetics. The artist’s primary concern lay in the purity of form, where each element was considered and perfected to achieve a manifestation that was distinctly simplified, naturalistic and modern.

Harry Rand writes, “Manship returned to America in the fall of 1912, bringing with him the carefully wrought sculptures he had executed in Rome. The shape and force of his career appeared suddenly, shining from an exhibition that the Architectural League held in New York at year’s end. The results were legendary. All ninety-six bronzes in the show sold. The critics and public unanimously acclaimed him a major new talent” (Paul Manship, Washington, D.C., 1989, p. 23). Modeled and cast two years after this successful exhibition, Indian and Pronghorn Antelope depicts Manship’s unique interpretation of the third labor (The Cerynian Hind) of Herakles, or Hercules, as told through Greek mythology. In Indian and Pronghorn Antelope, Manship emphasizes the power of the flowing line both with the figure, recast as a Native American, and the animal, recast as an antelope. Rand continues, "...Manship activated the empty air between the Indian and his prey. The separation of the two sculptures serves as a kind of 'spark gap' - the imagined flight of the arrow as it lands in the side of the rearing antelope carries the viewer's eye over this space. The antelope's backward curve returns the spectator's gaze to the Indian, completing the circuit" (Paul Manship, Washington, D.C., p. 36).