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The sculpture depicts a nude woman, standing with her legs crossed at the knee. The figure’s arms are raised. The right arm rests on top of her head, and the fingers of the hands are linked to each other. Her hair is wavy and textured. Light plays across the contours of her body, highlighting the broad planes and smooth surface of the bronze. She gazes down, as if she has been caught in a moment of introspection. The figure stands on a pedestal; the artist has carved his name and that of the foundry, “Roman Bronze Works N-Y,” on the base. The piece combines the classicism of Augustus Saint-Gaudens with the emotionalism of Auguste Rodin. Although the mood is different, the position of the figure’s arms may owe a debt to Rodin’s The Bronze Age, circa 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aitken’s piece embodies America’s renewed interest in the idealized classical nude, which personified the grace and perfection that the country sought. In the collection of Reynolda House, the sculpture represents a Beaux Arts-influenced period between the rugged realism of Frederic Remington’s Rattlesnake, circa 1908, and the stylized modernism of Paul Manship’s Flight of Europa from 1925. Further, the date of the piece, circa 1910, connects it to the 1917 construction of the Reynolds bungalow, and the sculpture shares a keen visual resonance with several design elements in the home.
A Thing of Beauty came into the Reynolda House collection in an interesting way. The donor, Winston-Salem native Richard Johnson, knew Aitken’s widow. In the 1960s, they lived in adjoining apartments in a Manhattan brownstone. The young man and the elderly lady became friendly, and one day she presented him with A Thing of Beauty . In 2008, Johnson gave the bronze to Reynolda House.
Notes:
[1] Heidi Applegate to Allison Slaby, e-mail message, February 14, 2008, archives, Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
ProvenanceTo mid-1960s
Joan Aitken (1898-1980), New York, NY, acquired from artist. [1]
From at least 1968 to 2008
Richard Earl Johnson, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC, given by Joan Aitken in the mid-1960s. [2]
From 2008
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Richard Earl Johnson on November 11, 2008. [3]
Notes:
[1] Conversation with Richard Earl Johnson, November 6, 2008, Object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Accession Record and Deed of Gift, Object file.
Exhibition History1915
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
San Francisco, CA (1915)
2009
Figures in Bronze: Sculpture at Reynolda
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/9/2009-8/30/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
Published ReferencesTrask, John ed. Catalogue de Luxe of the Department of Fine Arts Panama-Pacific International Exposition. San Franciso: Paul Elder and Company, 1915: 430.
DepartmentAmerican Art
A Thing of Beauty
Artist
Robert Ingersoll Aitken
(1878 - 1949)
Datecirca 1910
Mediumbronze
DimensionsOverall: 24 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (62.9 x 21 x 21 cm)
SignedAITKEN
Credit LineGift of Richard Earl Johnson
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number2008.4.1
DescriptionRobert Ingersoll Aitken’s bronze sculpture A Thing of Beauty may have been one of the pieces that the artist exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. [1] Although modest in scale when compared to the colossal fountain he created to symbolize the four elements, Aitken’s nude figure demonstrates many of the artist’s hallmark characteristics: a suggestion of emotion, a preference for classical forms, and a graceful suppression of detail.The sculpture depicts a nude woman, standing with her legs crossed at the knee. The figure’s arms are raised. The right arm rests on top of her head, and the fingers of the hands are linked to each other. Her hair is wavy and textured. Light plays across the contours of her body, highlighting the broad planes and smooth surface of the bronze. She gazes down, as if she has been caught in a moment of introspection. The figure stands on a pedestal; the artist has carved his name and that of the foundry, “Roman Bronze Works N-Y,” on the base. The piece combines the classicism of Augustus Saint-Gaudens with the emotionalism of Auguste Rodin. Although the mood is different, the position of the figure’s arms may owe a debt to Rodin’s The Bronze Age, circa 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aitken’s piece embodies America’s renewed interest in the idealized classical nude, which personified the grace and perfection that the country sought. In the collection of Reynolda House, the sculpture represents a Beaux Arts-influenced period between the rugged realism of Frederic Remington’s Rattlesnake, circa 1908, and the stylized modernism of Paul Manship’s Flight of Europa from 1925. Further, the date of the piece, circa 1910, connects it to the 1917 construction of the Reynolds bungalow, and the sculpture shares a keen visual resonance with several design elements in the home.
A Thing of Beauty came into the Reynolda House collection in an interesting way. The donor, Winston-Salem native Richard Johnson, knew Aitken’s widow. In the 1960s, they lived in adjoining apartments in a Manhattan brownstone. The young man and the elderly lady became friendly, and one day she presented him with A Thing of Beauty . In 2008, Johnson gave the bronze to Reynolda House.
Notes:
[1] Heidi Applegate to Allison Slaby, e-mail message, February 14, 2008, archives, Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
ProvenanceTo mid-1960s
Joan Aitken (1898-1980), New York, NY, acquired from artist. [1]
From at least 1968 to 2008
Richard Earl Johnson, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC, given by Joan Aitken in the mid-1960s. [2]
From 2008
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Richard Earl Johnson on November 11, 2008. [3]
Notes:
[1] Conversation with Richard Earl Johnson, November 6, 2008, Object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Accession Record and Deed of Gift, Object file.
Exhibition History1915
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
San Francisco, CA (1915)
2009
Figures in Bronze: Sculpture at Reynolda
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/9/2009-8/30/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
Published ReferencesTrask, John ed. Catalogue de Luxe of the Department of Fine Arts Panama-Pacific International Exposition. San Franciso: Paul Elder and Company, 1915: 430.
Status
On viewcirca 1935