Crouching Figure
- Date
- 1935
- Material
- Stone
- made in
- Woodstock, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Sculpture, stone & mineral
- Collection
- American Art
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 334
- Dimensions
- 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. (39.4 x 29.2 x 34.9 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Morton D. May
- Rights
- Saint Louis Art Museum
- Object Number
- 232:1954
NOTES
This sculpture is both rough and elegant while radically simple and powerfully emotional. It evokes both the natural form of the stone from which it is carved and the living form it represents.
John Bernard Flannagan was one of the first artists to practice “direct carving,” a reaction to the increasingly elaborate casting or modeling processes traditionally used to make sculpture. Flannagan would follow the shape, structure, color, and texture of a specific fieldstone to determine the sculpture he would make from it. As he wrote, “I would like my sculpture to appear as rocks, left quite untouched and natural, and . . . inevitable.”
Provenance
Henry G. Leach (1880–1970), New York, NY [1]
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, NY
- 1954
Morton D. May, St. Louis, MO, purchased from Curt Valentin Gallery
1954 –
Saint Louis Art Museum, gift of Morton D. May [2]
Notes:
[1] Leach is listed as ex-collector in Robert J. Forsyth’s notes [Robert J. Forsyth Research Material on John B. Flannagan, 1931-1987, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; photocopy, SLAM document files]. In a letter dated Dec. 20, 1954 from Morton May, he notes that Valentin described work as from a New York private collection [SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 9, 1954.
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, NY
- 1954
Morton D. May, St. Louis, MO, purchased from Curt Valentin Gallery
1954 –
Saint Louis Art Museum, gift of Morton D. May [2]
Notes:
[1] Leach is listed as ex-collector in Robert J. Forsyth’s notes [Robert J. Forsyth Research Material on John B. Flannagan, 1931-1987, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; photocopy, SLAM document files]. In a letter dated Dec. 20, 1954 from Morton May, he notes that Valentin described work as from a New York private collection [SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 9, 1954.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.