id: 162973
accession number: 2003.40
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.40
updated: 2019-06-05 09:39:48.139000
Gamin, c. 1929. Augusta Savage (American, 1892-1962). Hand-painted plaster; overall: 44.5 x 24.2 x 20.4 cm (17 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2003.40
title: Gamin
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1929
creation date earliest: 1924
creation date latest: 1934
current location: 226B American Modern
creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: hand-painted plaster
department: American Painting and Sculpture
collection: American - Sculpture
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Augusta Savage (American, 1892-1962) - artist
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measurements: Overall: 44.5 x 24.2 x 20.4 cm (17 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: signed on right-side: "Savage"; titled across the bottom-front: "Gamin"
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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fun fact:
A trailblazer, Savage was the first African American member of the National Association of Women Artists.
digital description:
Savage's nephew was the model for this sculpture. While the title only identifies him as "gamin," the French word for a street urchin or a young scamp, the pronounced individuality of the subject leaves the impression that the sitter was well known by the artist.
wall description:
Savage was the most acclaimed sculptor working during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ‘30s, and Gamin is her most famous work. It was long thought that the image was a generic figure; however, recent research reveals that it depicts her nephew. The warm characterization likely arises from the close bond shared between artist and model. Although several small versions of the sculpture were produced, this life-size, hand-painted plaster is unique, and likely the oldest surviving example of the subject.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Cover of Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life. June 1929.
page number: Cover
url:
"Une femme sculpteur noire." La Depeche Litteraire et Artistique (Aug/Sept. 1930) .
page number: Mentioned: p. 5
url:
"Harlem's Community Center." Marcia Minor. Daily Worker, August 1, 1938.
page number:
url:
Stromberg, Suzanne Schell. "Afro-American Art of the Harlem Renaissance." (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973).
page number: Mentioned: p. 83
url:
Leininger-Miller, Theresa A. New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
page number:
url:
Litt, Steven. "Art museum acquires top sculpture by Savage." Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 2, 2003.
page number: Mentioned: p. E1; Reproduced: p. E6
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (September 2003), cover.
page number: Cover
url:
Robinson, William. "Renaissance Kid." The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (October 2003)
page number: Mentioned: p. 6; Reproduced: p. 6
url:
"Major Acquisitions 2000-2005." Cleveland Art 45 (July/August 2005)
page number: Mentioned: p. 14; Reproduced: p. 19
url:
Rosenkranz, Conner. 19th & 20th Century American Sculpture. Smithsonian Libraries, 2007.
page number: Mentioned: p. 44; Reproduced: p. 61
url:
Gordon, Margery. "Eyes on the Prizes." Art & Auction (February 2008)
page number: Mentioned: p. 117; Reproduced: p. 117
url:
Cole, Mark. African American Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.
page number: Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced: p. 3, 20
url:
Brown, Marilyn. The Gamin De Paris in Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture: Delacroix, Hugo, and the French Social Imaginary. New York : Routledge, 2017.
page number: Mentioned: p. 118-119; Reproduced: pl. 24.
url:
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IMAGES