BY EDWARD R. THAXTER, CIRCA 1880

The American sculptor Edward R. Thaxter had a brief but promising career. Born in Maine in 1857, he was active as an artist early, and moved to Boston at age sixteen to study with the portrait sculptor John D. Perry. After a brief tenure in his own studio in Portland, Maine, Thaxter moved to Florence, Italy, in 1878, following the trend of many young sculptors wishing to learn from the masterpieces abroad. Here he worked on his oeuvre of neoclassical works, including this composition, about which he wrote home to his mother in great detail, as described in G. Heydt, “Woman Idealized in Marble”, Werner’s Magazine, vol. 21, March-August 1898, p. 61-72. Shortly after completion of the work in 1881, Thaxter contracted typhoid fever, and soon died at the young age of 24.

The original model of the work was ten feet tall, although a number of one-third reproductions were produced, including one that was exhibited in Tiffany’s Art Rooms, New York and illustrated in G. Heydt, p. 70. The group has been sold under variant titles through the years, as this piece was previously sold as 'Angel over Innocence’ and another example described as 'Awakening, A Water Nymph at Dawn’, sold Sotheby’s, New York, 22 April 2010, lot 187.