GASTON LACHAISE (1882-1935) Mask [LF 62]1925

GASTON LACHAISE (1882-1935) Mask [LF 62] 1925 inscribed with the artist's signature on the reverse bronze with blackish brown patina on black Belgian marble base Mask: 7 by 4 5/8 by 2 in. (17.8 by 11.8 by 5.1 cm.) Including Base: 13 1/4 by 3 3/4 by 2 1/4 in. (33.7 by 9.5 by 5.7 cm.) This work was modeled in circa 1922-1925, cast in 1925 and is numbered LF 62 in the Lachaise Foundation archives. Footnotes: 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. Provenance C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York (on behalf of the artist) George S. Hellman (acquired directly from the artist in 1927) Morris D. Chalfen, Minneapolis Exhibited Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Original Sculpture by Gaston Lachaise Loaned by John Kraushaar, 22 December 1925–26 January 1926, exh. cat., n.p., no. 20 Literature Catalogue of Copyright Entries, pt. 4, Works of Art..., n.s., vol. 22, no. 2, Washington, D.C., 1927, p. 117, referenced as Model of face of woman Gerald Nordland, Gaston Lachaise, 1882-1935: Sculpture and Drawings, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1963, n.p., no. 62, another example illustrated D.B. Goodall, Gaston Lachaise, Sculptor, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 85, 439, 542n 48(1), bust of Eda Hartman referenced, and vol. 2, pp. 159–60, Pl. LXXIV, plaster model of bust illustrated (as Eda Hartman Boyle); vol. 1, p. 136, the relief referenced, and vol. 2, p. 427, both bronze casts referenced as Mask with Bangs J. Day, J. Stenger, K. Eremin, N. Khandekar, and V. Budny, Gaston Lachaise: Characteristics of His Bronze Sculpture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2012, frontispiece, p. ii, plaster model of bust of Eda Hartman illustrated Gaston Lachaise's Mask [LF 62]is a high relief, represents the impassive yet mesmerizing face of Eda Hartman (1884–1934), sister of painter Bertram Hartman (Lachaise's close friend), as well as a theatrical dressmaker and, from 1921, wife of Lawrence Boyle. Eda owned a bronze statuette by Lachaise, and likely designed 'queen sized' dresses in unusual fabrics—one of her specialties—for the artist's wife. Lachaise developed Mask from a plaster model for a bust of Eda [LF 253] created in 1920–22, thus abbreviating and intensifying his subject's expression. In 1925, Lachaise had two bronze casts of Mask made by Herman Daub, a little-known industrial foundry in lower Manhattan. Both casts reproduce Lachaise's signature inscribed on the back of the plaster model. He immediately consigned the present cast to his dealer John Kraushaar, owner of the C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries but eventually took the piece back in 1926. In January 1927, he agreed to trade the cast to George Hellman (1878–1958), manager of the New Gallery, New York, for artwork by Merton Clivette (1868–1931). The subsequent history of the cast is unknown until the 1960s, when it belonged to Morris D. Chalfen (1907–1979), an impresario known for producing the 'Holiday on Ice' shows. Lachaise obtained a copyright for the relief on April 30, 1927. Likely at this same time, he polished the face of the other cast, patinated the bangs, and ground a (second) signature and the copyright date on the reverse—his typical practice of copyrighting a work long after it had been created or even carried out in bronze. He sold that cast in 1930 to New York dealer Erhard Weyhe. Lachaise issued no other bronzes of the relief, although he had considered carving it in marble. The plaster model for Mask is lost. -Virginia Budny For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing