Woman (Elevation)
INV-5883Gaston Lachaise (American, born France, 1882–1935)
Modeled 1912–15, cast 1927
Modernismbronzemetal
Date
Modeled 1912–15, cast 1927
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
With base: 182.9 × 71.1 × 43.2 cm (72 1/16 × 28 × 17 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Friends of American Art Collection
Gaston Lachaise modeled Woman (Elevation) after Isabel Dutaud Nagle, whom he married in 1917, telling her, “I want to create a miracle with it . . . as great as you.” The sculpture captures her appearance and simultaneously represents the first full-scale expression of Lachaise’s idealized female form. The figure’s long legs support a voluptuous torso featuring a small waist and ample hips and breasts. The sensual, fleshy form conveys Lachaise’s fascination with prehistoric art, including ancient fertility goddesses such as the famed Venus of Willendorf, which he believed possessed a vitality absent from later art forms.
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