Paul Manship (1885-1966)

In 1924, the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts commissioned Paul Manship to create a marble fountain. The present work is a bronze study for this commission in which Manship depicts Venus at the moment of her birth, washing the ocean water from her hair. He utilizes curvilinear, stylized forms to create a balanced and harmonious representation of the mythical subject. The final marble version is still in the collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art and stands over 28 inches high.

According to Edwin Murtha, twenty casts of 'Venus Anadyomene' were produced in the present size.