An eccentric poet and collector, Thayer co-owned the Dial, a provocative arts and politics journal, which he edited from 1920 to 1926. The Dial's art collection, which the journal used as a resource for its illustrations, included work by Lachaise, who, for much of the 1920s, devoted his practice to portrait busts of artists and writers associated with the publication. Short on money, Lachaise convinced Thayer to commission this likeness, which also features a glass base designed by the artist. Note: A flat 3.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Scofield Thayer
Artist:Gaston Lachaise (American (born France) Paris 1882–1935 New York)
Date:1923; cast 1924
Medium:Bronze
Edition:1/2
Dimensions:12 5/8 × 6 1/4 × 9 3/8 in., 18.4 lb. (32.1 × 15.9 × 23.8 cm, 8.3 kg)
Classification:Sculpture
Credit Line:Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982
Accession Number:1984.433.30
Inscription: Signed (right side of base): G. LACHAISE
Marking: Foundry mark (back of base): ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N–Y–
Scofield Thayer, New York (1924–d. 1982; commissioned from the artist in October 1923 for $500; on extended loan to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1959–82; his bequest to MMA)
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959.
New York. Downtown Gallery. "The Dial and the Dial Collection: A Special Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & Graphics by Thirty American Artists," September 22–October 17, 1959, no. 20 (as "Portrait of Scofield Thayer," ca. 1923, lent by an anonymous source) [this work or 1984.433.31].
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 63.
Washington, D. C. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Gaston Lachaise: Portrait Sculpture," November 22, 1985–February 16, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 79).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "As They Were: 1900–1929," April 9–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
Brooklyn Museum. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," October 28, 2011–January 29, 2012, unnumbered cat. (fig. 75).
Dallas Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," March 4–May 27, 2012, unnumbered cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," July 1–September 16, 2012, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra," July 2–August 11, 2019, unnum. brochure.
A. E. Gallatin. Gaston Lachaise. New York, 1924, p. 53, calls it "Portrait bust of Scofield Thayer, Esq." and dates it 1924.
Dial 80 (January 1926), ill. following p. 48.
Louisa Dresser inThe Dial and the Dial Collection. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Mass., 1959, p. 72, no. 43.
Henry McBride. "The Dial: An Adventure of the 1920s." Art News 58 (Summer 1959), p. 29, ill. p. 28.
Nicholas Joost. Scofield Thayer and The Dial: An Illustrated History. Carbondale, Ill., 1964, p. 97, ill. between pp. 268 and 269.
Gerald Nordland. Gaston Lachaise, 1882–1935, Sculpture and Drawings. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1964, unpaginated.
Richard Poirier. "The Table of Contents Was a Roster of Greatness." New York Times (January 31, 1965), ill. p. 5, misdates it 1926.
Donald B. Goodall. "Gaston Lachaise, Sculptor." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1969, pp. 99, 543, 786.
Nicholas Joost. "The Dial Collection: Tastes and Trends of the 'Twenties." Apollo 94 (December 1971), p. 488, fig. 1 (caption switched with fig. 3), dates it about 1923–24.
Gerald Nordland. Gaston Lachaise: The Man and His Work. New York, 1974, p. 87, 89, fig. 37.
Gerald Nordland. Gaston Lachaise: Sculpture and Drawings. Exh. cat., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, 1979, ill. p. 17.
Michael True. "The Many Voices of the Dial." Visionary Company, A Magazine of the Twenties 1, no. 1 (Summer 1981), p. 83.
Phyllis Samitz Cohen. "The Gaston Lachaise Collection." Yale University Library Gazette 58 (October 1983), p. 71.
Carolyn Kinder Carr inGaston Lachaise, Portrait Sculpture. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C., 1985, pp. 14, 16, dates it 1923.
Margaret C. S. Christman inGaston Lachaise, Portrait Sculpture. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C., 1985, pp. 78–80, ill., dates it 1923.
John Richardson. "Rediscovering an Early Modern Vision: The Dial Collection Recalls the Life and Times of Scofield Thayer." House and Garden 159, no. 2 (February 1987), ill. p. 161.
Sam Hunter. Lachaise. New York, 1993, p. 245, ill. p. 234, dates it 1923.
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. 674–75, no. 313, ill.
Teresa A. Carbone inYouth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties. Ed. Teresa A. Carbone. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. New York, 2011, pp. 98, 283 n. 227, fig. 75 (color).
Julia Day et al. Gaston Lachaise: Characteristics of His Bronze Sculpture. Cambridge, Mass., 2012, pp. viii, 64.
Roberta K. Tarbell inA New American Sculpture, 1914–1945: Lachaise, Laurent, Nadelman, and Zorach. Ed. Andrew J. Eschelbacher. Exh. cat., Portland Museum of Art. Portland, Me., 2017, p. 42.
Lauren Rosati. Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2019, unpaginated, ill.
Gaston Lachaise (American (born France) Paris 1882–1935 New York)
ca. 1920
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
