Rodman de Kay Gilder
In one of Saint-Gaudens’s earliest representations of a child, the cherubic head of Rodman de Kay Gilder (1877-1953) floats on a field of bronze. The sculptor excerpted this head study from a portrait of the Gilder family completed several months earlier (2002.445). His love of technical experimentation is evident in the scumbled treatment of hair and clothing, resembling thickly applied paint; the wispy horizontal striations of the background, recalling etching; and the cornice-like architectural element above. Saint-Gaudens was particularly pleased by the quality of this bronze, which he cast in New York soon after returning from Paris.
Artwork Details
- Title: Rodman de Kay Gilder
- Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
- Date: 1879, cast probably 1880
- Culture: American
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: 13 1/2 x 16 7/8 in. (34.3 x 42.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Purchase, Morris K. Jesup Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Schwartz Gift, 1994
- Object Number: 1994.50
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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