Female Torso 3

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Artist/Maker Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (French, 1891 - 1915 (active London))

Datec. 1913-1914

MediumSeravezza and Sicilian marble

DimensionsOverall: 10 3/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 1/2 in. (27.3 × 8.9 × 8.9 cm)

Credit LineGift of Elizabeth Pound, wife of Omar S. Pound, Class of 1951

Object number2005.6.1

On view

DescriptionHenri Gaudier-Brzeska was raised by a family of carpenters near Orléans in France. Determined to become a sculptor, he moved to London in 1911, becoming part of the Vorticist movement, as well as a founding member of the London Group, alongside Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957). Gaudier-Brzeska often drew artistic inspiration from Paleolithic and ancient Egyptian works, touting the superiority of their “primitivism” over the popular classicism of the ancient Greeks. The artist often carved directly into the stone without first creating preparatory models. The naturalistic Female Torso 3 may have been created by Gaudier-Brzeska to demonstrate his accomplishment as a sculptor and his understanding of classical sculpture. The model for this dissected figure was the artist and writer Nina Hamnett (1890–1956), a vibrant and unconventional woman who later become colloquially known in Paris as the “Queen of Bohemia.” Gaudier-Brzeska returned to France to enlist at the beginning of World War I. He was killed in combat on June 5, 1915, at the age of twenty-three.

Collections

Additional Details

Alternate Titles Torso

Exhibition History 2013
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Affinity Atlas," October 6, 2012 - April 7, 2013 (no cat.);

2006
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 16 - December 30, 2006 (no cat.);

2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hamilton Collects: A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat., illus. 46);

1985
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Ezra Pound: Vorticism and English Art", April 19 - 21, 1985 (no cat.);

1918
Memorial exhibition (cat no. 18).

Provenance 2005: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of Elizabeth Pound;
2005: Elizabeth Pound, by inheritance from Omar S. Pound;
September 2005: Omar S. Pound, by gift or inheritance from Dorothy Shakespear;
?: Dorothy Shakespear, by gift of Olivia Shakespear;
?: Olivia Shakespear.

Published References AFFINITY ATLAS (brochure). Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, 2012. p. 11, illus.