Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935)

Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), an extraordinary patron of the arts, is the subject of two portraits commissioned to Gaston Lachaise. The first, a bust, was modeled in 1931-32, cast in bronze in Germany in early 1932, and delivered to Kirstein several months later (School of American Ballet, Samuel B. & David Rose Building, Lincoln Center, New York). Immediately afterward, Kirstein commissioned the second, Man Walking, which was modeled in 1932, cast in bronze in Germany in 1933, chased by Lachaise, exhibited in the winter of 1933-34 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and purchased from the show by that museum. Lachaise then had the present example cast in a local foundry as a replacement and chased and refined it himself over the course of several months, delivering it to his patron around July 1934. Inspired by a small Egyptian statuette of the god Amun at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein) also reflects Lachaise's great admiration for Rodin's dynamic L'homme qui marche. The present work has been given number 98 by The Lachaise Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this lot.