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This week we return to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, after a brief diversion to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. This post includes several lovely sculptures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The introduction to this series, about the Wadsworth family and the Wadsworth Atheneum, is here. For all posts in the series, click here.

Bacchante with Infant Faun: MacMonnies, 1894

Bacchante is one of my favorite sculptures, mostly for the expression on that child’s face, which I’ve never quite managed to capture in a photo … but I keep trying. The Wadsworth has a small version made to reach a wider market than the seven-foot-tall bronze in the Metropolitan Museum and seven-foot-tall marble in the Brooklyn Museum. For more on MacMonnies, see my Artist-Entrepreneurs: Saint Gaudens, MacMonnies, and Parrish.

The Star: Frishmuth, 1918

In the early twentieth century, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980) created dozens of charming sculptures, mostly for gardens. Not being in the new abstract, non-representational style, her sculptures received little critical attention or acclaim. As a result, they were not collected by major museums: the Metropolitan has only two of her works. But the Wadsworth, bless its old-fashioned soul, has three on exhibition.

Extase: Frishmuth, 1920

Slavonic Dancer: Frishmuth, 1921

Like Frishmuth’s The Vine (see here and here), this piece was inspired by a pose struck by a professional dancer. I don’t actually know what a “slavonic dancer” looks like or how he would move, but this piece makes me imagine that I know.

Bust of Lincoln Kirstein: Noguchi, ca. 1928-1929

Noguchi is known for his abstract pieces, but until ca. 1940 he did create some representational works, including News on the Associated Press Building at Rockefeller Center. See my post on News for more on Noguchi’s progression from representational to abstract works.

The subject of this bust, Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), became co-founder of the New York City Ballet, where he served as general director from 1946 to 1989. When this bust was created, Kirstein was still a student at Harvard.

Hall Table: Wright, ca. 1918

And finally for this week, because I’m big on integration: by the time Frishmuth was creating the sculptures shown above, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was internationally famous for designs such as his Prairie Style houses and the Unity Temple in Oak Park. Wright created the table in the Wadsworth ca. 1918 for a home commissioned by sake brewer Tazaemon Yamamura. Shortly after he completed that project in Osaka, Wright spent three years in Japan designing the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Wadsworth posts on American art

When I visited the Wadsworth, visitors were sent through the galleries in reverse chronological order due to social distancing. If you’d rather read the posts in order (seventeenth through twentieth centuries), the sequence would be as follows. Part 1 is the introduction to the series.

• part 12: 16th to early 19th centuries, including Copley, Trumbull, and Earl
• part 2: late 18th c., including Copley and Earl

• part 3: early and mid-19th c., early Hudson River School, including Cole and Church
• part 11: mid-19th c., including the Colt legacy and the Charter Oak
• part 4: mid-19th c., including Church and Bierstadt
• part 6: late 19th c. painting and sculpture, including Church, Remington, and Bierstadt
• part 5: late 19th c. painting, including Church and Heade
• part 9: late 19th and early 20th c. painting and sculpture
• part 10: late 19th and early 20th c. sculpture, including MacMonnies and Frishmuth
• part 8: early and mid-20th c. painting and sculpture, including Andrew Wyeth
• Part 7: survey of images of Niagara Falls, from the 17th to 21st centuries, including Trumbull, Cole, Bierstadt, and Church.

More

• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon print and Kindle formats.
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