Gaston Lachaise

The Lachaise Foundation, Boston
[with]Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, circa 1972-1973
[with] Mitzi Landau, Los Angeles, 1974-75 and 1981-83
Mrs. Leona Palmer, Beverly Hills, 1983-99
Private Collection, New York

 

Austin, University of Texas, Not So Long Ago: Art of the 1920s in Europe and America, October - December, 1972, p. 57
Ithaca, New York, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum; UCLA, Frederick S. Wight Galleries; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Gaston Lachaise Retrospective Exhibition, 1974-1975
Houston, Hooks-Epstein Gallery, 1980
Feingarten Galleries, Los Angeles, Sculpture 1910-1930, 1982
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Gaston Lachaise:  100th Anniversary Exhibition, Sculpture and Drawings, 1982, no. 26

Hilton Kramer, et al. The Sculpture of Gaston Lachaise, New York, 1967, no. 32, p. 48, another example illustrated (as Reclining Woman, with Right Arm Raised, c. 1924)
Donald Bannard Goodall, Gaston Lachaise: Sculptor, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 178, 246n. 12, 304, 308, 329, 516-518, 519, 559n. 147; vol. 2, pp. 271-272, 421-422, Plate CXXI, another example illustrated (as Reclining Woman with Right Arm Raised, c. 1924)
Gerald Nordland, Gaston Lachaise: The Man and His Work, New York, 1974, pp. 111-112, fig. 51, another example illustrated (as Woman in Chair, c. 1924)
Sam Hunter and David Finn, Lachaise, New York, 1993, pp. vi, 90-91, 242, another example illustrated (as Woman in Chair, 1924)

In good condition aside from surface dust and some wear to the patina on the horizontal surfaces, mostly on the stomach, chest, knee, and arms.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This work is being sold with a certificate from the Lachaise Foundation.

Nude in Chair—the work's original title—represents the artist's wife, Isabel Dutaud Lachaise (1872-1957), in an informal, yet typically commanding pose. According to his own records, Lachaise began the plaster model for this work in 1925 (and not in the previous year, as is generally thought), completing it in 1926 or 1927 and copyrighting it in 1927. The first bronze cast was included in his solo exhibition at the Brummer Gallery, New York City, in early 1928. That cast, the only lifetime example, is owned by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The present cast is one of nine of a projected edition of eleven bronze casts issued by the Lachaise Foundation, Boston, from 1964 to about 1984. Nude in Chair has been given the number 49 by the Lachaise Foundation.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné sponsored by the Lachaise Foundation, for her assistance in preparing the entry for this work.