Leaping Dolphins, 1917

by Gaston Lachaise (American, 1882-1935)

Bronze with brown patina on original glass base

9 5⁄8 H. x 10 1⁄2 W. x 7 5⁄8 D. in., base: 1 in., overall height 10 5⁄8 in.

Inscribed (along the base): G. LACHAISE © 1922

Modeled 1917; cast between 1922 and 1924

One of nine bronze casts made during Lachaise’s lifetime.

According to Lachaise, Leaping Dolphins was created in 1917.  The sculpture is the earliest of four versions of the theme by the artist, and it expresses his deep appreciation of sea creatures, which he studied intensely at the New York Aquarium in Battery Park, New York City, during his free time.  The work was widely admired when it was exhibited in his first solo show at the Bourgeois Galleries, New York City, in February and March of 1918 as Dauphins.  A photograph of it was published in The New York Sun on February 17, 1918.  The sculpture was next exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 1919.  A cast obtained by A.E. Gallatin from the Kraushaar Gallery in March 1923, was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by August 1924.

Between May 25, 1922, and December 14, 1923, an edition of eight bronze casts—including the present example—was made for the New York dealer John Kraushaar, owner of the C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, who represented Lachaise during that period. Some of these bronzes, including the present example, were mounted by Lachaise on glass bases. (Lachaise is known to have used a glass base on a different sculpture by early 1923.)  The present work retains its original, modernist glass base. 

Among Lachaise’s three other sculptures on the theme of a flight of Dolphins is a wall fountain featuring Three Dolphins that was commissioned for a garden pool, copyrighted in 1922, and reproduced in bronze several times.  The second is a large fountain that was copyrighted in 1924 and reproduced twice in bronze in 1925; are owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Lachaise Foundation, New York.  (A detailed drawing of the composition and four wooden models of individual Dolphins used to make this sculpture still exist.)  The third group was modeled in 1931 and cast in bronze in 1932 for Edward M. M. Warburg, one of the artist’s most important patrons.



Thank you to Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné, sponsored by the Lachaise Foundation, New York.

* This sculpture is in a Private Collection, Massachusetts

Exhibiting:

Master Drawings New York

January 26th – February 3rd, 2024

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