Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein)

Details

Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935)
Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein)
bronze with brown patina
21 in. (53.3 cm.) high on a marble base 1½ in. (3.8 cm.) high
Cast in 1934.

Provenance

The artist.
Lincoln Kirstein, New York, acquired from the above, 1934.
School of American Ballet, New York, gift from the above.
Christie's, New York, 1 December 1989, lot 150.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2006.

Literature

The Museum of Modern Art, Gaston Lachaise: Retrospective Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1935, pp. 15, 27, no. 51, illustrated (as Portrait Figure).
M. Knoedler & Co., Gaston Lachaise 1882-1935, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1947, p. 18, no. 35 (as Portrait Figure).
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Dramatic Choice: The Theatre Collection, exhibition catalogue, Buffalo, New York, 1950, p. 33, no. 76, pl. 20, illustrated (as Standing Figure).
D.B. Goodall, "Gaston Lachaise, 1882-1935," The Massachusetts Review, vol. 1, no. 4, Summer 1960, p. 692, illustrated (as Portrait Figure).
L. Kirstein, Quarry: A Collection in Lieu of Memoirs, Pasadena, California, 1986, pp. 26-27, 113, illustrated (as Lincoln Kirstein).
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Counterpoint: Two Centuries of American Masters, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1990, pp. 82-83, no. 52, illustrated.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Six American Modernists: Marsden Hartley, Gaston Lachaise, Elie Nadelman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, John Storrs, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1991, pp. 13, 19, no. 32, illustrated.
S. Hunter, Lachaise, New York, 1992, pp. 154-56, 244, illustrated. Zabriskie Gallery, Inc., Message from the Interior: The Eakins Press Foundation; An Exhibition of Books, Portfolios & Related Works of Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1992, p. 7, no. 7.
N.F. Weber, "Perspective, Lincoln Kirstein: A 'Uniquely Daring' Visionary," Art News, vol. 95, April 1996, p. 152.
D. Leddick, Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle, New York, 2000, p. 244, illustrated.
Eaton Fine Art, Inc., From Neo-Classical and Beaux-Arts to Modernism: A Passage in American Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, West Palm Beach, Florida, 2001, pp. 7, 62-63, illustrated.

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Gaston Lachaise: Architectural and Smaller Sculptures, October 27-November 17, 1933 (as Statuette of a Young Man).
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Gaston Lachaise: Retrospective Exhibition, January 30-March 7, 1935, no. 51 (as Portrait Figure).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Gaston Lachaise 1882-1935, January 20-February 15, 1947, no. 10 (as Portrait Figure).
Buffalo, New York, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Dramatic Choice: The Theatre Collects, November 4-December 1, 1950 (as Standing Figure).
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Counterpoint: Two Centuries of American Masters, April 21-June 8, 1990.
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Six American Modernists: Marsden Hartley, Gaston Lachaise, Elie Nadelman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, John Storrs, November 9, 1991-January 4, 1992, no. 32.
New York, Zabriskie Gallery, Inc., Message from the Interior: The Eakins Press Foundation; An Exhibition of Books, Portfolios & Related Works of Art, December 10, 1992-January 30, 1993, no. 7.
West Palm Beach, Florida, Eaton Fine Art, Inc., From Neo-Classical and Beaux-Arts to Modernism: A Passage in American Sculpture, February 1-March 31, 2001.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Lincoln Kirstein, April 25-August 27, 2007.

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Lot Essay

Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), an extraordinary patron of the arts, is the subject of two portraits commissioned to Gaston Lachaise. The first, a bust, was modeled in 1931-32, cast in bronze in Germany in early 1932, and delivered to Kirstein several months later (School of American Ballet, Samuel B. & David Rose Building, Lincoln Center, New York). Immediately afterward, Kirstein commissioned the second, Man Walking, which was modeled in 1932, cast in bronze in Germany in 1933, chased by Lachaise, exhibited in the winter of 1933-34 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and purchased from the show by that museum. Lachaise then had the present example cast in a local foundry as a replacement and chased and refined it himself over the course of several months, delivering it to his patron around July 1934. Inspired by a small Egyptian statuette of the god Amun at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein) also reflects Lachaise's great admiration for Rodin's dynamic L'homme qui marche. The present work has been given number 98 by The Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this lot.

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