.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
Born August 16, 1879 in Albany, New York, Edward Francis McCartan showed artistic talent at a young age. He attended Pratt Institute in New York and studied with sculptor Herbert Adams. He continued his education at the Art Students League where he enrolled in 1901 to study under George Grey Barnand, Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Kenyon Cox. He took jobs with a variety of sculptors and architects before traveling to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1907 to 1910.
During his time at the École, McCartan was crafting small terracotta and plaster sculptures. It was not until his return to the United States that he would begin to work on a larger scale. He began producing garden sculpture in the early 1910s, "aware that there was a market for this genre, particularly for sculptures with mythological and pastoral themes." (J. Connor, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 115) In 1912 he exhibited his first sculpture of this genre, a seventeen inch plaster depicting a naiad on a turtle's back titled Fountain (1912), and won an award from the National Academy of Design. News of his talent quickly spread and with it came a number of garden sculpture commissions for various private homes around New York and the surrounding areas.
Diana, the goddess of the hunt, first appeared as a subject in McCartan's sculpture in 1923. The earliest rendition, titled Diana (1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), depicts the goddess controlling a leashed hound. Diana (1924, Brookgreen Gardens, Pawley's Island, South Carolina), produced the following year, portrays the goddess in a more passive state with her hand resting on the head of a fawn. This work was a direct precursor to Garden Figure - Diana. The idealized Diana figures of each work demonstrate, "a stylistic shift to bolder, less naturalistic modeling and more simplified detail. These characteristics are evidenced in a life-size marble group done for a poolside setting in Connecticut in the early thirties. Simply called Garden Figure, it is again Diana, this time standing amidst reeds, a hound seated at her feet. This work and the small Bather (1935) are solid, reserved forms that nevertheless carry a grace similar to the lithe earlier nudes and, like nearly all McCartan's figures, share the characteristically lowered head." (Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, p. 118)
McCartan's skill is at its height in Garden Figure. The hound and the drapery serve to perfectly balance the work, while the bowing reeds instill a sense of movement. The strong elegant lines of the figure are simple, yet feminine. The flow and exquisite detail of the drapery and reeds and the handling of the dog's features and musculature demonstrate McCartan's technical mastery as well as his eye for beauty and harmony in his sculptures. A bronze cast of the dog from the present work is in the collection of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
The present work was originally commissioned by Sarah Tod Bulkley for her family’s country estate ‘Rippowam’ in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Bulkley was an passionate gardener and President of the Garden Club of America, and here Diana overlooked an elaborate pool and garden. Illustrated in this setting, the sculpture graced the cover of Country Life in March 1934. Her husband Jonathan O. Bulkley was a wealthy paper merchant, as owner of Bulkley Dunton Co., today the largest paper distribution company in North America. The couple were prominent members of New York society, residing at 600 Park Avenue in their Modern Renaissance style mansion designed by James Gamble Rogers.
During his time at the École, McCartan was crafting small terracotta and plaster sculptures. It was not until his return to the United States that he would begin to work on a larger scale. He began producing garden sculpture in the early 1910s, "aware that there was a market for this genre, particularly for sculptures with mythological and pastoral themes." (J. Connor, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 115) In 1912 he exhibited his first sculpture of this genre, a seventeen inch plaster depicting a naiad on a turtle's back titled Fountain (1912), and won an award from the National Academy of Design. News of his talent quickly spread and with it came a number of garden sculpture commissions for various private homes around New York and the surrounding areas.
Diana, the goddess of the hunt, first appeared as a subject in McCartan's sculpture in 1923. The earliest rendition, titled Diana (1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), depicts the goddess controlling a leashed hound. Diana (1924, Brookgreen Gardens, Pawley's Island, South Carolina), produced the following year, portrays the goddess in a more passive state with her hand resting on the head of a fawn. This work was a direct precursor to Garden Figure - Diana. The idealized Diana figures of each work demonstrate, "a stylistic shift to bolder, less naturalistic modeling and more simplified detail. These characteristics are evidenced in a life-size marble group done for a poolside setting in Connecticut in the early thirties. Simply called Garden Figure, it is again Diana, this time standing amidst reeds, a hound seated at her feet. This work and the small Bather (1935) are solid, reserved forms that nevertheless carry a grace similar to the lithe earlier nudes and, like nearly all McCartan's figures, share the characteristically lowered head." (Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, p. 118)
McCartan's skill is at its height in Garden Figure. The hound and the drapery serve to perfectly balance the work, while the bowing reeds instill a sense of movement. The strong elegant lines of the figure are simple, yet feminine. The flow and exquisite detail of the drapery and reeds and the handling of the dog's features and musculature demonstrate McCartan's technical mastery as well as his eye for beauty and harmony in his sculptures. A bronze cast of the dog from the present work is in the collection of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
The present work was originally commissioned by Sarah Tod Bulkley for her family’s country estate ‘Rippowam’ in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Bulkley was an passionate gardener and President of the Garden Club of America, and here Diana overlooked an elaborate pool and garden. Illustrated in this setting, the sculpture graced the cover of Country Life in March 1934. Her husband Jonathan O. Bulkley was a wealthy paper merchant, as owner of Bulkley Dunton Co., today the largest paper distribution company in North America. The couple were prominent members of New York society, residing at 600 Park Avenue in their Modern Renaissance style mansion designed by James Gamble Rogers.