Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists
Auction: December 6, 2015 2:00:00 PM EDT
Signed 'Janet Scudder' on base; also with Gorham Co. Founders' stamp, bronze fountain with brown patina
Height: 44 in. (111.8cm) (including base)
Provenance: Steve Newman, New York, New York.
Private Collection, Pennsylvania.
NOTE:
Janet Scudder began her formal art training at the Academy of Art in Cincinnati when she was still a teenager. By the time she was 20, she began assisting artist Lorado Taft on several sculpture projects for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. In 1894, she moved to France and established her studio while training in French sculpture styles and techniques. The present sculpture, also referred to as "Seaweed Fountain", exhibits an informal and naturalistic depiction of the child's figure, which is derivative of French examples.
For an identical model also cast by Gorham Manufacturing Company, see Indianapolis Museum of Art's permanent collection (no. 79.339).