Paul Manship (1885-1966)

'Venus Anadyomene'

Details

Paul Manship (1885-1966)
'Venus Anadyomene'
inscribed 'P. MANSHIP/© 1924' and 'Alexis RUDIER/Fondeur PARIS' (along the base)
bronze with brown patina
8 in. (20.3 cm.) high on a 1¼ in. (3.2 cm.) marble base

Provenance

William Welles Bosworth.
By descent to the present owner.

Literature

E. Murtha, Paul Manship, New York, 1957, p. 163, no. 171.
G.L. Tarbox, R.R. Salmon, "Manship and the Tradition of Garden Sculpture," Paul Manship, Changing Taste in America, exhibition catalogue, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1985, p. 88, fig. 62, another example illustrated.
H. Rand, Paul Manship, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 59-60, fig. 48, another example illustrated.

Lot Essay

In 1924, the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts commissioned Paul Manship to create a marble fountain. The present work is a bronze study for this commission in which Manship depicts Venus at the moment of her birth, washing the ocean water from her hair. He utilizes curvilinear, stylized forms to create a balanced and harmonious representation of the mythical subject. The final marble version is still in the collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art and stands over 28 inches high.

According to Edwin Murtha, twenty casts of 'Venus Anadyomene' were produced in the present size.

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