{
"data": {
"id": 173114,
"accession_number": "1937.3205",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Male Torso, 1917. Constantin Brancusi (Romanian, 1876\u20131957). Brass; with base: 63.8 x 30.5 x 19.1 cm (25 1/8 x 12 x 7 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, 1937.3205. \u00a9 Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (ARS)",
"current_location": "223 20th Century Avant-Garde",
"title": "Male Torso",
"creation_date": "1917",
"creation_date_earliest": 1917,
"creation_date_latest": 1917,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 20th century"
],
"technique": "brass",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "with base: 63.8 x 30.5 x 19.1 cm (25 1/8 x 12 x 7 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"with base": {
"height": 0.638,
"height_inch": 25,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 0.305,
"width_inch": 12,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.191,
"depth_inch": 7,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (ARS)",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed on bottom: C. Brancusi, Paris, 1917.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312457,
"title": "Sculpture of Our Time",
"description": "Sculpture of Our Time. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 5, 1937).",
"opening_date": "1937-11-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311952,
"title": "Art, A Means to World Understanding",
"description": "Art, A Means to World Understanding. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 16-April 10, 1949).",
"opening_date": "1949-03-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 704924,
"title": "Sculpture 1850-1950",
"description": "Sculpture 1850-1950. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (organizer) (March 30-May 14, 1950).",
"opening_date": "1950-03-30T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311918,
"title": "Rouault: Retrospective Exhibition",
"description": "Rouault: Retrospective Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 28-March 15, 1953).",
"opening_date": "1953-01-28T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301168,
"title": "Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture",
"description": "Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-09-06T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 702956,
"title": "The Trojan Horse Exhibition of Art of the Machine",
"description": "The Trojan Horse Exhibition of Art of the Machine. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX (organizer) (September 25-October 20, 1958).",
"opening_date": "1958-09-25T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302007,
"title": "Paths of Abstract Art",
"description": "Paths of Abstract Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 5-November 13, 1960).",
"opening_date": "1960-10-05T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310025,
"title": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960",
"description": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-09-16T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 182153,
"title": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2006-05-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 524184,
"title": "Brancusi",
"description": "Brancusi. Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (organizer) (March 27-July 1, 2024).",
"opening_date": "2024-03-27T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Joseph Brummer Gallery)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"3205.1937"
],
"did_you_know": "Brancusi studied under Auguste Rodin but left after a few months, commenting: \"Nothing can grow under big trees.\"",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This sculpture depicts a simplified human torso without limbs or head. The artist\u2019s goal was not to move toward abstraction, but to capture the essence of things in his sculptures. Here, he stripped the human body down to its most basic components: one sleek cylinder representing the torso and two representing the upper thighs. Constantin Brancusi made three versions of this artwork: a wood version (Philadelphia Museum of Art) and two in brass (this museum and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden). The smooth surfaces of the brass versions dazzle the eye with their gleaming high polish.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117230226"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Milliken. William. \"New Acquisitions of Present-Day Sculpture.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 25, no. 4 (April 1938): 63-65.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 58; Mentioned: p. 63-64",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137921"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 338",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n65"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward B. Henning. Paths of Abstract Art. Cleveland, OH: H.N. Abrams, 1960.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: fig. 2, p. 5; mentioned: pp. 5,19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 197",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n221"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 197",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n221"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 246",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n266"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 125, no. 33",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hulte\u0301n, Pontus, Alexandre Istrati, Natalia Dumitresco, and Jeanne Bouniort. Constantin Brancusi. Paris, France: Flammarion, 1995.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 16; Mentioned: p. 17",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Flynn, Tom. The Body in Three Dimensions. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1998.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 136; Mentioned: p. 137",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Nielsen, Anne Marie. T\u00e6t pa\u030a en torso: Belvedere-torsoen som kunstv\u00e6rk og forbillede. K\u00f8benhavn, Denmark: Ny Carlsberg glyptotek, 2001.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 91, fig. 24",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Baselitz, Georg, Wolfgang Bru\u0308ckle, Auguste Rodin, and Andreas Schalhorn. Von Rodin bis Baselitz: der Torso in der Skulptur der Moderne ; [Katalogbuch zur Ausstellung \"Von Rodin bis Baselitz - Der Torso in der Skulptur der Moderne\" in der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart vom 7. April bis 19. August 2001]. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2001.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 40",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Varnedoe, Kirk. Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 200, fig. 5, 16",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Adams, Laurie. The Making and Meaning of Art. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006. N70 .A33 2006",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 253, fig. 13.9",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Etschmann, Walter, and Robert Hahne. Kammerlohr: Themen der Kunst : Design. Mu\u0308nchen, Germany: Oldenbourg, 2008.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 298-299",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Biro, Yae\u0308lle, Christine E. Brennan, and Christel H. Force. The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York: Defining Taste from Antiquities to the Avant-Garde. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 485; reproduced: p. 486, fig. c.2",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Criqui, Jean-Pierre. \"Part-Object.\" In Brancusi: Art Is Just Beginning, Ariane Coulondre, V. Loth, Julie Jones, and Centre Georges Pompidou, 201-204. Zu\u0308rich, Switzerland: Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess AG, 2024.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 203-204",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Brancusi: L\u2019Exposition = The Exhibition. Paris, France: Centre Pompidou, 2024.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 28",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Ullmann, Antoine, ed. Brancusi. Dada (Lyon). Paris: \u00c9ditions Arola, 2024.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 12-13",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.3205",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Michael J. Horvitz Family Gallery",
"athena_id": 173114,
"creators": [
{
"id": 271,
"description": "Constantin Brancusi (Romanian, 1876\u20131957)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Constantin Brancusi Romanian, 1876-1957 Constantin Brancusi was one of the outstanding sculptors of the 20th century. The Romanian-born artist also was actively engaged in making photographs of his sculpture throughout much of his career, creating images that fall into two main categories: views of his studio and pictures of single works. Following studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Craiova, the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest, and the \u00c9cole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Brancusi began exhibiting his sculpture in Paris in 1906. It is not known when he first began to photograph his pieces. However, by 1921 he was interested in improving his photographic skills and asked Man Ray for technical advice, as well as for suggestions for buying equipment and setting up a darkroom. Brancusi used photography not only to document his sculpture, but also to promote it. He would make sets of photographs showing front, back, and side views of a piece that could be sent to prospective buyers outside Paris. Although Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, among others, also photographed his sculpture, Brancusi felt that only he could produce images that did justice to his work. Making his own photographs also allowed him to present his sculpture as he wanted it to be seen. Well aware of the influence of light, Brancusi often experimented with lighting effects to emphasize the dynamic qualities of a piece. When he died in 1957, more than 550 negatives and 1,000 prints were found in his studio. In addition to a Brancusi photograph, the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection includes one of his sculptures. M.M.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1876",
"death_year": "1957",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1937-12-20T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1917,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1917",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-08-27 11:29:13.661000"
}
}