Gaston Lachaise

The Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts
[with] Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, 1969

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gaston Lachaise, 1882–1935: Sculpture and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1963, no. 38, another example illustrated
H. Kramer, The Sculpture of Gaston Lachaise, New York, 1967, p. 48, figs. 34, 35, another example illustrated
D. B. Goodall, Gaston Lachaise: Sculptor, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 87, 427, 428, 537n. 13, 569; vol. 2, pp. 419-20, 468, pl. LXIX, plaster model (misidentified as a bronze cast) illustrated
Gaston Lachaise: Portrait Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1985, pp. 11, 44-45, another example illustrated
P. M. Kozol, "Head of a Woman, 1918," in American Figurative Sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1986, pp. 383, 385
Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1987, p. 89, another example illustrated
Julia Day, Jens Stenger, Katherine Eremin, Narayan Khandekar, and Virginia Budny, Gaston Lachaise: Characteristics of His Bronze Sculpture, Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums, 2012, pp. 30, 64, another example illustrated

 

in good condition; patina is slightly worn
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Gaston Lachaise derived the plaster model for Head of a Woman from a head he had carved in Tennessee marble in 1917 without the aid of a preliminary model, first exhibited (as Bust) in early 1918, sold in 1922, and now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts. That severe, archaizing head--and hence the subsequent plaster--was inspired by Isabel Dutaud Nagle (1872-1957), whom Lachaise married in 1917. Sometime after 1928, he used the plaster model to make bronze casts now owned by the Wichita Art Museum, Kansas, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Lachaise's widow also issued a third, posthumous cast, whereabouts unknown. The Lachaise Foundation, which was established in 1963 to oversee the artist's estate and is now located in New York City, assigned the identification number LF 38 to the work and produced an edition of six numbered bronzes, including the present example, each designated as Estate casts. The Foundation owns the last in the series, which was cast by 1979. It also authorized an edition of twelve numbered Estate casts to be made from the same plaster model of Head of a Woman, although with a longer neck, assigning the number LF 109 to that new work. Of the nine casts of the long-necked version that have been produced; two are owned by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny for her help with the cataloguing of this lot.