A ROMAN MARBLE TOGATUS

The statue depicts a youth wearing the toga praetexta, worn by freeborn males until their late teens when they would set aside their childhood bulla and assume the adult’s toga virilis.

Over a period spanning four decades of the mid-twentieth century, British-American designer Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-1976) established a diverse practice creating stylish interiors and furniture; quickly becoming became a key player in post-war American design. Robsjohn-Gibbings moved to the United States from London, opening a gallery on Madison Avenue in 1936 and quickly establishing himself as a designer of note; undoubtedly utilizing valuable contacts made during an earlier spell working in the New York office of the renowned dealer Charles Duveen. From the late 1950s began to create designs based on forms from antiquity, including a series of highly successful and much copied klismos chairs, eventually moving to Athens where he counted Aristotle Onassis amongst his clients (see James Buresh, 'T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings', Archives of American Art, Journal 48: 1-2, pp. 31-45).