John Marin

Artist Gaston Lachaise (American, born France, 1882 - 1935)

Date1927

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall (sculpture): 12 3/4 × 9 × 9 1/2 inches (32.39 × 22.86 × 24.13 cm)
Overall (base): 6 × 6 × 6 inches (15.24 × 15.24 × 15.24 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object number57-99

Edition/State/Proof1 of 12 casts

On View

Not on view

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionBronze bust on wooden baseExhibition History

Exhibition History

Images: 23 Interpretations, University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, April 26–June 3, 1964.

Gaston Lachaise: 100th Anniversary Exhibition, Palm Springs [CA] Desert Museum, November 18–December 19, 1982.

Gallery Label

Best known for his sculptures of voluptuous female nudes, Gaston Lachaise also executed more intimate likenesses of friends and fellow artists. This portrait of painter, John Marin, whom he met through gallery owner and photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, conveys a distinct world-weariness. Suggested by the sitter's downwardly turned head, furrowed brow and pursed lips, the feeling of distress is accentuated by the sculptor's deep, expressive modeling of Marin's slender, even gaunt, facial features and moppy page-boy haircut. Lachaise, who collected the painter's highly regarded watercolors, described the portrait as "the face of a man who had suffered, sacrificed and triumphed without vanity."

Provenance

To (Weyhe Gallery, New York City);

to the Friends of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 30, 1957;

to NAMA, 1957.

Published References

“Spirited discussion…,” October 15, 1957, clipping, scrapbook, NAMA Archives, vol. 16, addenda envelope.

Patricia Jansen Doyle, “Art Friends View Sculpture on Sale,” Kansas City Star, October 24, 1957, clipping, scrapbook, NAMA Archives, vol. 16, 61.

“One of two sculpture purchases…,” October 31, 1957 (repro.), clipping, scrapbook, NAMA Archives, vol. 16, addenda envelope.

“Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) (December 1957), copy, information packet for “50 years of collecting: the Friends of Art at the Nelson: a retrospective exhibition,” curatorial file.

Images: 23 Interpretations (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1964), 23-25.

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. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 215 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6^th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 246 (repro.).

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