Manship created this portrait of his firstborn child Pauline Frances when she was three weeks old. The realistically depicted life-size half-figure of the infant is wrapped in a blanket, which envelops her head and cascades down her sides. The marble is ensconced in an elaborate gilt and polychromed cast-bronze frame, which features low reliefs of musicians and real and mythical birds and animals. The architectural format reflects the strong influence of early Italian Renaissance decorative conventions in Manship’s portrait work.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Pauline Frances
Artist:Paul Manship (American, St. Paul, Minnesota 1885–1966 New York)
Inscription: Signed (lower left side, in shield): •OPVS• / • PAVL • / MANSHIP •
the artist, New York (1914–16; sold in 1916 to Mrs. Edward F. Dwight for MMA)
New York. Berlin Photographic Company. "Exhibition of Sculpture by Paul Manship," February 15–March 8, 1916, no. 1 (as "The Artist's Daughter, Pauline Frances, three weeks old").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "75th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York," March 16–April 29, 1951, unnumbered cat. (p. 51).
Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts. "125 Years of American Art," September 16–October 11, 1953, no catalogue.
New York. National Arts Club. "Paul Manship Memorial Exhibition," May 10–24, 1966, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of Paul Manship," June 11–September 1, 1991, not in catalogue.
Ithaca. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. "The Art of Paul Manship," September 24–November 24, 1991, not in catalogue.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760–1914," September 16–December 13, 1992, no. 104.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760–1914," February 3–April 11, 1993, no. 104.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760–1914," May 23–August 8, 1993, no. 104.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "As They Were: 1900–1929," April 9–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
M[ariana]. G[riswold]. Van Rensselaer. "The Field of Art: 'Pauline' (Mr. Manship's Portrait of His Daughter at the Age of Three Weeks)." Scribner's Magazine 60 (December 1916), pp. 772–76, ill., calls it "Pauline".
Martin Birnbaum. Exhibition of Sculpture by Paul Manship. Exh. cat., Berlin Photographic Company. New York, 1916, pp. 11–13, no. 1, ill. between pp. 6 and 7.
A. E. Gallatin. "The Sculpture of Paul Manship." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11 (October 1916), p. 218 n. 1, p. 220, calls it "Pauline Frances—Three Weeks Old".
Paul Vitry. Paul Manship, sculpteur américain. Paris, 1927, p. 36, pls. 54, 55, calls it "Pauline Manship, âgée de trois semaines".
Albert TenEyck Gardner. American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1965, p. 151.
Joan M. Marter inAmerican Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Thayer Tolles. Vol. 2, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885. New York and New Haven, 2001, pp. 754–55, no. 379, ill.
Paul Manship (American, St. Paul, Minnesota 1885–1966 New York)
ca. 1909–14
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