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The Reynolda House statue was placed as the principal ornament in a fountain for the sunken garden on the southern approach to Reynolda House. The garden was landscaped by Thomas W. Sears (1880–1966) for owners Mary Reynolds and Charles H. Babcock in the mid to late 1930s. The fountain includes two attendant frogs, which circulate the water, but the nude was conceived and produced separately. An undated lanternslide of the statue by De Witt Ward is in the Archives and Special Collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Vuchinich also produced other garden sculpture for the Babcocks at Reynolda House. For the circular fountain in the garden on the north side of the residence, he created bronze sculptures of the four Babcock children; these were removed at a later date and are currently in private collections. There are snapshots with partial views of these figurative sculptures in the Archives at Reynolda House.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
Exhibition History
DepartmentHistoric House
Kneeling Venus
Datecirca 1935
MediumCast bronze
DimensionsOverall: 43 × 22 3/4 × 16 in. (109.2 × 57.8 × 40.6 cm)
SignedVUK VUCHINICH Sc
Credit LineReynolda Estate
CopyrightCopyright Unknown
Object number1966.2.116
DescriptionThe subject and style of this outdoor sculpture is neoclassical and in the Beaux Arts tradition of Vuk Vuchinich’s teachers Robert Aitken and Lee Oscar Lawrie. It resembles similarly posed statues from ancient times, which used the ruse of Venus bathing as an excuse to portray a nude woman. She is shown in a crouching position, down on her left knee, with her left arm crossing over to rest on her right knee. Her right arm is upraised and bent over her head. Another version of Vuchinich’s Kneeling Venus can be found in front of the 1930 mansion Casa Casuarina in Miami, which was once the home of fashion designer Gianni Versace.The Reynolda House statue was placed as the principal ornament in a fountain for the sunken garden on the southern approach to Reynolda House. The garden was landscaped by Thomas W. Sears (1880–1966) for owners Mary Reynolds and Charles H. Babcock in the mid to late 1930s. The fountain includes two attendant frogs, which circulate the water, but the nude was conceived and produced separately. An undated lanternslide of the statue by De Witt Ward is in the Archives and Special Collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Vuchinich also produced other garden sculpture for the Babcocks at Reynolda House. For the circular fountain in the garden on the north side of the residence, he created bronze sculptures of the four Babcock children; these were removed at a later date and are currently in private collections. There are snapshots with partial views of these figurative sculptures in the Archives at Reynolda House.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
Exhibition History
Status
On view