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Lot Essay
The present bronze cast representing ecstatically embracing lovers was made in 1936 under the supervision of Gaston Lachaise’s widow, Isabel Dutaud Nagle Lachaise (1872-1957). The first owner of the cast, Doris Levine Fish (1908-1992), had frequently interacted with Lachaise on behalf of her employer, Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), a devoted friend and patron of the sculptor since the early 1930s. She reports that Lachaise, who died suddenly in October 1935, had planned to carve an enlarged version of the work in alabaster. According to Lachaise’s widow, her husband created the model for the work in 1930-34, developing the composition from that of the heroic plaster model featured in his 1920 exhibition at the Bourgeois Galleries, New York City, and illustrated as the frontispiece of the show’s catalogue (Exhibition of Sculptures and Drawings by Gaston Lachaise); that plaster, entitled Love by the gallery director, was destroyed by the artist sometime between 1923 and 1925, presumably for lack of storage space. Whereas Love was executed in the archaizing style exhibited by some of Lachaise’s advanced works dating from the late 1910s and early 1920s, Passion was modeled with the intense rhythms seen in many of his late sculptures. Both works were intended to commemorate his abiding love for his wife. To be noted, he had essayed the same theme of ardently entwined nudes in drawings dating from as early as 1905, that is, approximately two years after he had first encountered Isabel.
No other bronze casts of Passion were made until 1963, when the newly established Lachaise Foundation authorized an edition of seven numbered examples. The first two in the edition were made in that same year, and the final bronze, in 1991. All of those casts have been sold. In 2005, the Foundation issued an artist’s proof. It owns that last cast as well as the artist’s plaster model, and has assigned the identification number LF 105 to the work. Concerning the sculpture’s title, it was called Group by Isabel in about 1938 (at which time she noted that Doris Fish had already acquired the first bronze cast); Man and Woman in 1947; Caress in 1957; Passion--the name by which the work is now generally known--in 1963, and The Lovers in 2000.
We are grateful to Virginia Budny for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this sculpture.
No other bronze casts of Passion were made until 1963, when the newly established Lachaise Foundation authorized an edition of seven numbered examples. The first two in the edition were made in that same year, and the final bronze, in 1991. All of those casts have been sold. In 2005, the Foundation issued an artist’s proof. It owns that last cast as well as the artist’s plaster model, and has assigned the identification number LF 105 to the work. Concerning the sculpture’s title, it was called Group by Isabel in about 1938 (at which time she noted that Doris Fish had already acquired the first bronze cast); Man and Woman in 1947; Caress in 1957; Passion--the name by which the work is now generally known--in 1963, and The Lovers in 2000.
We are grateful to Virginia Budny for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this sculpture.