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recto overall
Standing Buddha
recto overall
recto overall

Standing Buddha

CultureThai
Date7th-8th century C.E.
MediumGray limestone
DimensionsOverall: 51 1/2 × 18 × 6 inches (130.81 × 45.72 × 15.24 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number35-33
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 225
Collections
Exhibition History

Khmer Sculpture, Asia House Gallery, New York, New York, November 30, 1961-January 28, 1962, no. 1M as Buddha, Standing.

The Evolution of the Buddha Image, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, May 6-June 30, 1963, no.27 as Buddha.

Gallery Label
Over a thousand years ago, artists in Thailand carved this enlightened historical Buddha’s face to look like themselves. Notice the Buddha’s reflective expression, upright pose, curly hair, and belly full of breath — do you see aspects of yourself? Set into a Buddhist temple niche, only the front of this slender sculpture was visible. Since few of the brick temples from this period survive, the sculpture’s broken limbs may suggest that its original home was ruined. Yet the Buddha’s gentle features and downcast eyes still radiate quiet, internal power.
Provenance

Acquired in Siam (modern-day Thailand) by Michel Bréal (1896-1973), Bangkok and Xiengrai, by 1935 [1];

Acquired from Michel Bréal by his uncle, Henri Bréal (1878-1957), Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, by 1935;

Purchased from Henri Bréal by the dealer Hagop Kevorkian (1872-1962), Paris and New York, by 1935;

Purchased from Kevorkian by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

NOTES:

[1] According to Harold Woodbury Parsons, Nelson-Atkins Purchasing Agent, in a letter to Paul Gardner, Director, October 15, 1935, Nelson-Atkins curatorial file, Parsons was introduced to Henri Bréal by the dealer Paul Mallon in Paris, and Bréal told him he acquired the sculpture from his nephew. Henri Bréal’s nephew was Michel Bréal who, according to a biography within the finding aid for the Papiers Michel Bréal (473PAAP) at the Centre des archives diplomatiques, La Courneuve, was “on a mission to Siam from December 1923, where he was responsible for organizing the teaching of French at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok until the end of 1927, when he became director of the Siamese branch of French East Asia. In addition to these functions, he assumed those of consular agent in Xiengrai from 1929.”

Published References

Sheldon Cheney, A World History of Art (New York: The Viking Press, 1937), 323, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 147, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949) ), 190, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 238-39, (repro.).

Asia House Gallery, Khmer Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Carnegie Press, Inc., 1961), 12-13, (repro.).

Benjamin Rowland, The Evolution of the Buddha Image, exh. cat. (New York: The Asia Society Galleries in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1963), 69-70, 134, (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Stone Sculpture of India and South-East Asia,” Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 86, fig. 6, fig. 7, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 146, (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 208-209, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 393, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 280-81, (repro.).

Kimberly Masteller, “Arthur Upham Pope and Collecting Persian Art for Kansa City,” in Arthur Upham Pope and A New Survey of Persian Art (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2016), fig. 10.1, (repro.).

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kimberly Masteller, Masterworks from India and Southeast Asia: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kanas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 2016), 22, fig. 16, 38-39, (repro.).

Yuka Kadoi, ed., Arthur Upham Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art, vol. 10, Studies in Persian Cultural History (Leiden: Brill, 2016), (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.