Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage 1892-1962 Head of a Man 1931-1935 hand-sculpted painted plaster 13-1/2 x 10 x 7 inches (without base; with base, 18 inches h) signed Provenance: private collection, Massachussetts This is a very rare, unique, and important work by Savage.
Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage 1892-1962 Horn Player 1935-1940 painted plaster sculpture 15-1/2 inches (h) signed Provenance: private collection, Cleveland, Ohio Savage made at least three different figures of this series, all comparable in size, subject and medium. They very seldom come to the market.
"Portrait Of A Baby"painted red clay/terracotta relief bust of an infant. Signed and dated 1942. Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage (1892 - 1962) was active/lived in New York, Florida. Augusta Savage is known for African-American portrait sculpture, educator. 9" x 12" x 10" From verbatim narrative of Regenia A. Perry's Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in Association with Pomegranate Art Books, 1992): Of great poignancy, one of the last of Savage's pieces on view in the New York Historical Society exhibition is a portrait of an unnamed baby. This supremely accomplished work of art was created in terracotta, unlike the plaster and bronze which Savage used on most of her other sculptures. Portrait of a Baby recalls the red clay that the young artist had first grasped in her fingers long years before.Savage grew up in Green Cove Springs, a brick-making town in Florida. "It had all of this natural red clay, and so Savage would seek out those red clay pits as a child," explains Ikemoto. But before long, "she stopped making mud pies and started making things."The career of Augusta Savage was fostered by the climate of the Harlem Renaissance. During the 1930s, she was well known in Harlem as a sculptor, art teacher, and community art program director. Born Augusta Christine Fells in Green Cove Springs, Florida, on February 29, 1892, she was the seventh of fourteen children of Cornelia and Edward Fells. Her father was a poor Methodist minister who strongly opposed his daughter's early interest in art. My father licked me four or five times a week," Savage once recalled, "and almost whipped all the art out of me."In 1907 Savage married John T. Moore, and the following year her only child, Irene, was born. Moore died several years after the birth of their daughter. Around 1915 the widowed artist married James Savage, a carpenter whose surname she retained after their divorce during the early 1920s. In 1923, Savage married Robert L. Poston, her third and final husband, who was an associate of Marcus Garvey. Poston died in 1924.Savage's father moved his family from Green Cove Springs to West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1915. Lack of encouragement from her family and the scarcity of local clay meant that Savage did not sculpt for almost four years. In 1919 a local potter gave her some clay from which she modeled a group of figures that she entered in the West Palm Beach County Fair. The figures were awarded a special prize and a ribbon of honor. Encouraged by her success, Savage moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where she hoped to support herself by sculpting portrait busts of prominent blacks in the community. When that patronage did not materialize, Savage left her daughter in the care of her parents and moved to New York City. Savage arrived in New York with $4.60, found a job as an apartment caretaker, and enrolled at the Cooper Union School of Art where she completed the four-year course in three years. During the mid-1920s when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, Savage lived and worked in a small studio apartment where she earned a reputation as a portrait sculptor, completing busts of prominent personalities such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Savage was one of the first artists who consistently dealt with black physiognomy. Her best-known work of the 1920s was Gamin, an informal bust portrait of her nephew, for which she was awarded a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study in Paris in 1929. There she studied briefly with Felix Benneteau at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière. She had two works accepted for the Salon d'Automne and exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris. In 1931 Savage won a second Rosenwald fellowship, which permitted her to remain in Paris for an additional year. She also received a Carnegie Foundation grant for eight months of travel in France, Belgium, and Germany.Following her return to New York in 1932, Savage established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and became an influential teacher in Harlem. In 1934 she became the first African-American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. In 1937 Savage's career took a pivotal turn. She was appointed the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center and was commissioned by the New York World's Fair of 1939 to create a sculpture symbolizing the musical contributions of African Americans. Negro spirituals and hymns were the forms Savage decided to symbolize in The Harp. Inspired by the lyrics of James Weldon Johnson's poem Lift Every Voice and Sing,The Harp was Savage's largest work and her last major commission. She took a leave of absence from her position at the Harlem Community Art Center and spent almost two years completing the sixteen-foot sculpture. Cast in plaster and finished to resemble black basalt, The Harp was exhibited in the court of the Contemporary Arts building where it received much acclaim. The sculpture depicted a group of twelve stylized black singers in graduated heights that symbolized the strings of the harp. The sounding board was formed by the hand and arm of God, and a kneeling man holding music represented the foot pedal. No funds were available to cast The Harp, nor were there any facilities to store it. After the fair closed it was demolished as was all the art.Upon returning to the Harlem Community Art Center, Savage discovered that her position had been assumed by someone else. This initiated a series of frustrations that virtually forced Savage to end her career. The Harlem Community Art Center closed during World War II when federal funds were cut off. In 1939 Savage made an attempt to reestablish an art center in Harlem with the opening of the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art. She was founder-director of the small gallery that was the first of its kind in Harlem. That venture closed shortly after its opening due to lack of money. During the spring of 1939, Savage held a small, one-woman show at the Argent Galleries in New York.Depressed by the loss of her job and the collapse of both of her attempts to establish art centers, Savage retreated to the small town of Saugerties, New York, in the Catskill Mountains in 1945 and reestablished relations with her daughter and her daughter's family. Although her artistic production decreased, she found peace and seclusion in Saugerties. Savage visited New York occasionally, taught children in local summer camps, and produced a few portrait sculptures of tourists. During her years in Saugerties, Savage also explored her interest in writing children's stories, murder mysteries, and vignettes, although none were published. In 1962 Savage moved back to New York and lived with her daughter. She died in relative obscurity on March 26, 1962, following a long bout with cancer.Savage effectively captured the essence of her subject's personality in this diminutive bust. Wearing a "be-bop" cap with its wide brim cocked jauntily to the side, the figure tilts his head in the same direction and looks past the observer with a slightly sullen expression of typical boyhood defiance. The sculpture was modeled in clay, cast in plaster, and painted to resemble the award-winning version. Savage's facility in handling the clay medium is clearly demonstrated in her sensitive modeling of the boy's broad features, deeply set eyes, and prominent ears. In addition, the open collar of his wrinkled shirt and crumpled cap contribute to the sculpture's informality and immediate appeal.STERLING ASSOCIATES STRIVES TO PROVIDE ACCURATE, OBJECTIVE, & FAIR INFORMATION ON ALL LOTS. WE WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AND PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PHOTOS. WE ADVISE THAT YOU, OR SOMEONE ON YOUR BEHALF, INSPECT ANY ITEM(S) AND COME TO YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS BEFORE BIDDING. ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE SEE TERMS & CONDITIONS.
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Head of a Man 1931-1935 painted plaster 13-1/2 x 10 x 7 inches (without base; with base, 18 inches h) signed Provenance: private collection, Massachussetts This is a very rare and important work by Savage.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Head of a Young Black Man. Painted plaster, with a painted plaster base, circa 1931-35. Approximately 457x241x152 mm; 18x9½x6 inches (including the base). Signed "A. Savage" at the rear base edge. Provenance: acquired at Sloans & Kenyon, Chevy Chase, MD, May 7, 2004; private collection, Chicago, thence by descent to the current owner, Illinois. This beautiful bust of a young man is very scarce - it is the only life-sized head in plaster by the Harlem Renaissance sculptor to come to auction. Few large works in plaster by Augusta Savage are known to survive today. The modeling and finish of this head are similar to Bust of Dr. William Pickens, Sr., 1932-33, in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem, completed after Savage's trip to Paris. Theresa Leininger-Miller also describes how Savage returned from Paris with about twenty sculptures. In addition to Gamin, six other plaster busts from the 1930s and 40s were located and included in the recent retrospective Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman organized by Jeffreen Hayes. Likely made in the early 1930s in her Harlem studio school, this head demonstrates her skill in naturalist portraiture and her classical training in figurative modeling. Savage's realism gave her the ability to convey, as Hayes describes, "the strength and nobility" of the sitters, "challenging the dominant images of Blacks in the 1930s". By 1932, Savage was elected to the National Association of Women Painters, was represented by Argent Galleries and had founded the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. Savage's students included such important artists as Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Norman Lewis, William Artis and Ernest Crichlow. In 1933, Savage expanded her studio and founded the Harlem Art Workshop at 306 West 141st Street. By 1937, Savage was named the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center, under the auspices of the WPA. Savage is the subject of an exciting, new documentary film; Searching for Augusta Savage, written, directed and produced by Audacious Woman Productions' Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley, premiered on February 15, 2024. Farrington pp. 103-105; Hayes pp. 70-71; Leininger-Miller pp. 200-201.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin. Plaster painted gold, circa 1929. Approximately 229x146x111 mm; 9x5¾x4⅜ inches. With the artist's name incised, verso. Provenance: private collection, New York. An iconic image of the Harlem Renaissance in sculpture, this strong example of Gamin has fine modelling and is painted gold to resemble bronze. Savage made smaller versions of Gamin after her life-size plaster and subsequent bronze, typically painted black or gold. The subject of Gamin is confirmed to be Savage's young nephew. The Smithsonian American Art Museum located a May 1940 article in the Chicago Defender referencing the model as Savage's "little nephew" who had come to live with his aunt in Harlem after his home in Florida was damaged by a hurricane. Curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, organizer of the exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman at the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, further demonstrates that the model was her nephew. In the Augusta Savage Papers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hayes found the following Savage quotation in a 1935 interview with the Federal Art Commission: "I bought some materials, set a dry goods box on the living room table, stood my nephew alongside the table, and worked practically all night, till we were both exhausted." Gamin was a turning point in Savage's career. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Gamin brought Savage success at the end of the 1920s. Out of 10 works on display at Harlem's 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library, Charles Russell Richards, the art director of the General Education Board of New York, singled out Savage, recognizing Gamin as a significant work. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson explain how two Harlem businessmen, Eugene Kinckle Jones, of the National Urban League; and John E. Nail, brother-in-law of James Weldon Johnson; also singled out Gamin for acclaim. Daniel Schulman also notes how the sculpture helped Savage win the first Rosenwald Fund fellowship ever awarded to a visual artist in May of 1929 - the president of the Rosenwald Fund Edwin Embree even ordered a cast of Gamin for himself. Gamin was illustrated on the cover of the June issue of the magazine Opportunity that year. Hayes p. 69; Leininger-Miller pp. 178-179; Bearden/Henderson p. 172; Schulman pp. 52-54.
Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage 1892-1962 Singing Woman 1930/1980 bronze with green/brown patina 16-1/4 inches h (not including wooden base) inscribed This form was conceived by the artist circa 1930, and cast by New Arts Foundry, Baltimore, MD, c. 1980-90. Provenance: the estate of James K. Hill, Washington, D.C.
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Gamin c. 1929 plaster with painted dark bronze patina 9 inches high incised signature and title An exceptional example of this image including both signatures.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lenore (Harlem Girl). Plaster, painted bronze, 1935. Approximately 178x140x102 mm; 7x5 1/2x4 inches. With the artist's name incised, verso. Provenance: private collection, New York. This charming and sensitive bust of a young girl is a scarce Harlem Renaissance portrait by Augusta Savage, and the first known cast of this plaster to come to auction. Beginning in the late 1920s, Savage made small scale portraits of children in her Harlem studio school, including her iconic Gamin, 1929. Similar works from the period include Savage's bronze bust of Gwendolyn Knight, 1934-35 and an untitled bronze bust of a girl in pigtails, 1935. The 1930s was also the period when Savage reached the peak of her career as both an artist and administrator in New York. In 1932, Savage was elected to the National Association of Women Painters, was represented by Argent Galleries and founded the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. Savage's students included such important artists as Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Norman Lewis, William Artis and Ernest Crichlow. In 1933, she expanded her studio and founded the Harlem Art Workshop at 306 West 141st Street. By 1937, Savage was named the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center, under the auspices of the WPA.
A rare work by an important, talented artist, Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage (American, 1892-1962), a key member of the Harlem Renaissance, titled "Gamin". "Gamin" was her best-known work of the 1920s, being an informal bust portrait of her nephew, for which she was awarded a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study in Paris in 1929. [9 1/4 H x 5 1/2 W x 3 1/2 D inches]. In good condition.
Augusta Savage (American, 1892-1962) Singing Woman: Three Works Green-painted plaster sculpture together with two green-patinated bronze sculptures, likely later castings from the plaster The first, signed Augusta Savage on back of base and the second and third, signed and with New Art Foundry, Baltimore stamp on back of each
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Lift Every Voice and Sing (the Harp) 1939 metal sculpture with dark brown patina 10-3/4 x 9-1/2 x 4 inches signed and inscribed
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp). Cast white metal painted gold, 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Stamped signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York, with the studio printed paper label on the base underside. Provenance: Daniel Webster Perkins, Esq., Jacksonville, FL; thence by descent, private collection, Florida. Daniel Webster Perkins (1879 - 1972) was a prominent attorney in Florida and one of the state's first African American lawyers, having been officially admitted to the Florida Bar in 1914. After practicing law in Knoxville, Tennessee and Tampa, Florida, he settled in Jacksonville in 1919, where he practiced until his death in 1972. Mr. Perkins was a strong proponent of civil rights and a community leader; in 1968, the former Colored Lawyers Association of Jacksonville changed its name to the D.W. Perkins Bar Association in honor of Perkins, who had been a founding member. During a family vacation to the 1939 World's Fair, Perkins purchased Savage's souvenir replica. Exhibited: Through Our Eyes 2000; Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Ritz Theatre LaVilla Museum, Jacksonville, Florida, February 8, 2000. Augusta (Christine Fells) Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, just south of Jacksonville. After first exhibiting her sculpture in Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Savage moved to New York to study sculpture. She was admitted to the Cooper Union School of Art in 1921, and completed the four year course in three years. In 1929 and 1931, Savage was the recipient of two successive Rosenwald Grants, which enabled her to travel to France and study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. When she returned to New York in 1932, she opened the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in Harlem, where her students included William Artis, Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis. In 1935, she was a founding member of the Harlem Artists Guild, and from 1936 - 1937 she worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project as the Director of the Harlem Community Art Center. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by Jacksonville brothers James Weldon and Rosamund Johnson's anthem Lift Every Voice. Her iconic sculpture stood almost 16-foot high, in painted, cast plaster on the grounds of the fair. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the fair was over - it is known today only from photographs and these smaller versions which were cast by the artist to be sold as souvenirs.
AUGUSTA CHRISTINE SAVAGE (American, 1892 - 1962). Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp), circa 1939, Small-scale cast white metal with bronze patina of Augusta Savage's plaster sculpture "Lift Every Voice and Sing" designed for and displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The cast metal souvenir is lettered by a kneeling man at front holding a plaque that reads "Life Every Voice and Sing," on one side of base "Augusta Savage"; on other side of base " World's Fair 1939; under base there is a paper card applied: "Reproduction of a Work of Art created by Augusta Savage. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" now on exhibit at the New York World's Fair. Augusta Savage Studios, Inc. 143 West 125th Street, New York, N.Y." - Dimensions: Height: 10.75; Width: 9.625; Depth: 4 inches
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Gamin 1929 (year of original design; later casting) bronze with black patina 8 1/2 (h) x 5 (w) x 4 (d) inches (bronze) 6 x 6 x 1 1/2 inches (base)
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp) c. 1939 metal with bronze patina 10-3/4 x 9-1/2 x 4 inches incised signature and Worlds Fair 1939 inscribed at base published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York Savage’s work The Harp was one of the most popular works seen at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, supposedly seen by more than 5 million people. Savage had taking a two year leave from her position at the Harlem Community Art Center to create the work, and when she attempted to return to her position following the fair, she learned her position had been assumed by someone else. Disappointed, but hoping to continue the momentum of her newfound popularity, she opened a gallery, the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art in Harlem. This was the first gallery to be opened in the country by an African American woman. She held her first exhibition, the First Annual Exhibition: Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, June 8-22, 1939, which included 54 works by African American artists. The same year, Savage held a small, one-woman show (15 works) at the Argent Galleries in New York.
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Lot of two sculptures Dancing Figures c. 1939 Untitled (Flute Player), painted plaster, 13 inches high, signed. Untitled (Dancer), painted plaster, 15-1/2 inches high, signed. A very rare pair of works by Savage—we have seen this pair of figures only once before. A similar pair of dancing figures is pictured in "Augusta Savage Renaissance Woman," Jeffreen M. Hayes (catalog accompanying the exhibition, originating at the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, FL, 2018), p. 61, fig. 20. This pair, identified as “Susie Q” and “Truckin”, was pictured with the artist in a photograph dated 1939. Augusta Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She had a knack for sculpting even as a small child, making mud ducks and selling them at the local fair. She married at the age of 15, but her husband died the following year, after having a child together. In 1915, her family moved to West Palm Beach, where she met a potter and acquired 25 pounds of clay. Her sculpture received much local attention, and through a series of events and support of teachers, Savage traveled to New York City in her quest to become a professional sculptor. She was admitted to the Cooper Union School, which was tuition-free, and finished her 4 year program in 3 years. She traveled abroad to France on scholarship and joined a group of black artists and intellectuals, including Hale Woodruff, Henry Tanner, and Countee Cullen.
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Gamin c. 1929 plaster with bronze patina 9 inches high titled signed with artist’s script signature verso An exceptional example of this image including both signatures. Augusta Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She had a knack for sculpting even as a small child, making mud ducks and selling them at the local fair. She married at the age of 15, but her husband died the following year, after having a child together. In 1915, her family moved to West Palm Beach, where she met a potter and acquired 25 pounds of clay. Her sculpture received much local attention, and through a series of events and support of teachers, Savage traveled to New York City in her quest to become a professional sculptor. She was admitted to the Cooper Union School, which was tuition-free, and finished her 4 year program in 3 years. She traveled abroad to France on scholarship and joined a group of black artists and intellectuals, including Hale Woodruff, Henry Tanner, and Countee Cullen.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin. Plaster painted gold, circa 1929. 229x146x111 mm; 9x5 3/4x4 3/8 inches. With the artist's name incised, verso. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, New York; private collection, Arkansas (1939); thence by descent to the current owner, Arkansas. The owners provided the following statement: "My late mother-in-law bought this plaster piece from Augusta Savage about 1939 when she was in New York for a summer job. Being from rural Arkansas, she was very mindful of race relations. She told us she visited the studio, visited with the sculptor, who said she could not easily get money for bronze castings so did plaster and painted it. The sculptor said Gamin was modeled after her nephew. My mother in law bought the plaster piece and told us she carried it home to Warren, Arkansas on her lap on the bus." An iconic image of the Harlem Renaissance in sculpture, this strong example of Gamin has fine modelling and is painted gold to resemble bronze. Savage made smaller versions of Gamin after her life-size plaster and subsequent bronze, typically painted black or gold. Recent research has further confirmed the subject of Gamin. The Smithsonian American Art Museum located a May 1940 article in the Chicago Defender referencing the model as Savage's "little nephew" who had come to live with his aunt in Harlem after his home in Florida was damaged by a hurricane. Curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, organizer of the exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman at the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, further demonstrates that the model was her nephew. In the Augusta Savage Papers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hayes found the following Savage quotation in a 1935 interview with the Federal Art Commission: "I bought some materials, set a dry goods box on the living room table, stood my nephew alongside the table, and worked practically all night, till we were both exhausted." Gamin was a turning point in Savage's career. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Gamin brought Savage success at the end of the 1920s. Out of 10 works on display at Harlem's 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library, Charles Russell Richards, the art director of the General Education Board of New York, singled out Savage, recognizing Gamin as a significant work. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson explain how two Harlem businessmen, Eugene Kinckle Jones, of the National Urban League, and John E. Nail, brother-in-law of James Weldon Johnson, also singled out Gamin for acclaim. Daniel Schulman also notes how the sculpture helped Savage win the first Rosenwald Fund fellowship ever awarded to a visual artist in May of 1929 - the president of the Rosenwald Fund Edwin Embree even ordered a cast of Gamin for himself. Gamin was illustrated on the cover of the June issue of the magazine Opportunity that year. Hayes p. 69; Leininger-Miller pp. 178-179; Bearden/Henderson p. 172; Schulman pp. 52-54.
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp) Metal with silver/bronze patina 1939 Signed and inscribed. Augusta Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She had a knack for sculpting even as a small child, making mud ducks and selling them at the local fair. She married at the age of 15, but her husband died the following year, after having a child together. In 1915, her family moved to West Palm Beach, where she met a potter and acquired 25 pounds of clay. Her sculpture received much local attention, and through a series of events and support of teachers, Savage traveled to New York City in her quest to become a professional sculptor. She was admitted to the Cooper Union School, which was tuition-free, and finished her 4 year program in 3 years. She traveled abroad to France on scholarship and joined a group of black artists and intellectuals, including Hale Woodruff, Henry Tanner, and Countee Cullen. By the early 1930s, Savage was living in Harlem and had created a school, Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts. In 1933, she founded The Vanguard, a group of Harlem intellectuals who met in her studio to discuss politics, art, and the condition of the African American. 10-3/4 x 9-1/2 x 4 inches
Augusta Savage 1892-1962 Child With Rabbit Bronze 1928 This work is identical to the work that is in the collections of the South Side Community Art Center and the DuSable Museum of African American History. It is one of five cast. The statue in the collection of the DuSable was recently exhibited in Augusta Savage Renaissance Woman held at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL in 2018 and illustrated on pages 62-63. The series of 5 bronzes were cast by Anthony Fortunado, a first generation Italian bronze maker at the studio of sculptor, Geraldine McCullough, on the South Side of Chicago (date unknown). This was done under the supervision of Dr. Margaret Burroughs, from the original plaster model. Savage had visited the South Side Community Art Center several times for lectures and workshops, although it is unclear when Burroughs took possession of the plaster model to execute this project. Augusta Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She had a knack for sculpting even as a small child, making mud ducks and selling them at the local fair. She married at the age of 15, but her husband died the following year, after having a child together. In 1915, her family moved to West Palm Beach, where she met a potter and acquired 25 pounds of clay. Her sculpture received much local attention, and through a series of events and support of teachers, Savage traveled to New York City in her quest to become a professional sculptor. She was admitted to the Cooper Union School, which was tuition-free, and finished her 4 year program in 3 years. She traveled abroad to France on scholarship and joined a group of black artists and intellectuals, including Hale Woodruff, Henry Tanner, and Countee Cullen. By the early 1930s, Savage was living in Harlem and had created a school, Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts. In 1933, she founded The Vanguard, a group of Harlem intellectuals who met in her studio to discuss politics, art, and the condition of the African American. 40 x 16 x 11.25 inches
Augusta Christine Fells (Moore) Savage (American, 1892-1962) plaster sculpture with bronze patina titled GAMIN along front edge, depicting a young African American male with a tilted cap and wrinkled shirt. Signed "Savage" vertically in rectangle on the backside. Created circa 1929. 9" H x 5 3/4" W x 4 3/8" D. Biography (adapted from The Johnson Collection): Augusta Savage was a leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance. One of fourteen children born to a rural Florida preacher, she moved to New York in 1921 with less than $5 to her name to pursue the study of sculpture at the Cooper Union. Her skill in creating portrait busts of African Americans earned her praise, but she was denied admission to a women's summer art program in France because of her race -- an injustice that provoked national headlines. Her first "Gamin" sculpture was created in 1929 and was "a critical work not only to Savage's career, but also as an embodiment of the Harlem Renaissance's mission. The representation of the solemn, sensitive youth expressed the inherent dignity of an African American identity that many black artists sought to promote. Here, Savage captures an arrested moment, a sense of true immediacy; the child's glance feels natural and uncontrived. While the subject is presumed to be her nephew, Ellis Ford, Gamin was conceived as a type rather than a portrait, representing one of the city's countless street urchins. The critical and commercial success of Gamin catapulted Savage's reputation far beyond Harlem art circles. The breakthrough sculpture garnered the attention of patrons and at last earned her a fellowship through the Julius Rosenwald Foundation to study in Paris. She arrived there in the autumn of 1929 and connected with fellow African American expatriates like Henry O. Tanner, Nancy Prophet, and Hale Woodruff. In late 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, Savage returned to Harlem, where she concentrated on teaching and advocacy." She established the Savage Studio of Arts & Crafts in 1932 and taught at the Harlem Community Arts Center and the Harlem Artists Guild, inspiring many future African American Artists. Provenance: private California collection, by descent from the estate of Clara D'Agostino, New York.
Augusta Savage (American, 1900-1962) Gamin, circa 1929 Painted plaster 9-1/2 inches (24.1 cm) high Signed and titled on base: Gamin / Savage PROVENANCE: Private collection, Warwick, New York. LITERATURE: J.M. Hayes, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, London, 2018, p. 69, another example illustrated; R. Bearden and H. Henderson, A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present, New York, 1993, p. 172, another example illustrated. HID01801242017
Augusta Savage 1892 - 1962 Gamin Bronze 1929 titled, signed verso Provenance The Estate of David Copley, former publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune Private Collection, California Literature: The Evolution of Afro-American Artists 1800-1950, City University of New York; 1967, p. 23. Art: African American, Samella Lewis; 1978; p. 85. Augusta Savage Renaissance Woman, Jeffreen M. Hayes, Cummer Museum, 2018, pp. 68-69. 9 x 5-3/4 x 4-3/8 inches
Augusta Savage 1892 - 1962 The Harp (Lift Every Voice and Sing) Metal with brown patina on a green marble base 1939 Signed Inscribed, World's Fair 1939 Literature: Augusta Savage Renaissance Woman, Jeffreen M. Hayes, Cummer Museum, 2018, pp. 82-83. 10-3/4 x 9-1/2 x 4 inches
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp). White metal cast with a silver patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York, with the small title plate and the printed paper label on the base. Provenance: private collection, New York. This cast is an excellent example of this iconic sculpture by Augusta Savage. A monumental, nearly 16-foot high plaster version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Augusta Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon and J. Rosamund Johnson's hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the fair was over - it is known today only from photographs and a number of these smaller, souvenir versions cast by the artist.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin. Plaster painted light brown, circa 1929. 229x146x111 mm; 9x5 3/4x4<3/8> inches. With both the artist's signature and name incised, verso. Provenance: gift from the artist; private collection, New Jersey (1940-1941); thence by descent to the current owner, New Jersey. An iconic image of the Harlem Renaissance in sculpture, this strong example of Gamin has fine modelling with an unusual coloring. Savage made smaller versions of Gamin after her life-size plaster and subsequent bronze. These small casts were typically painted black or gold to resemble a bronze sculpture. Recent research has established the identity of the subject of Gamin. The Smithsonian American Art Museum located a May 1940 article in the Chicago Defender referencing the model as Savage's "little nephew" who had come to live with his aunt in Harlem after his home in Florida was damaged by a hurricane. Curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, organizer of the exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman at the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, further demonstrates that the model was her nephew. In the Augusta Savage Papers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hayes found the following Savage quotation in a 1935 interview with the Federal Art Commission: "I bought some materials, set a dry goods box on the living room table, stood my nephew alongside the table, and worked practically all night, till we were both exhausted." Gamin was a turning point in Savage's career. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Gamin brought Savage success at the end of the 1920s. Out of 10 works on display at Harlem's 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library, Charles Russell Richards, the art director of the General Education Board of New York, singled out Savage, recognizing Gamin as a significant work. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson explain how two Harlem businessmen, Eugene Kinckle Jones, of the National Urban League, and John E. Nail, brother-in-law of James Weldon Johnson, also singled out Gamin for acclaim. Daniel Schulman also notes how the sculpture helped Savage win the first Rosenwald Fund fellowship ever awarded to a visual artist in May of 1929 - the president of the Rosenwald Fund Edwin Embree even ordered a cast of Gamin for himself. Gamin was illustrated on the cover of the June issue of the magazine Opportunity that year. Hayes p. 69; Leininger-Miller pp. 178-179; Bearden/Henderson p. 172; Schulman pp. 52-54.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Pair of dancing figures. Untitled (Flute Player), painted plaster, circa 1939. Approximately 13 inches high. With the artist's signature incised on the base edge * Untitled (Dancer), painted plaster, circa 1939. Approximately 15 1/2 inches high. With the artist's signature incised on the base. Provenance: private collection, New York. Savage made two other similar sculptures of dancing figures, Susie Q and Truckin', both circa 1939. Savage is pictured posing with the two sculptures in a photograph from her archives in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; the photograph is illustrated in the monograph Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman that accompanies this retrospective. The location of both figures is not known today. The Susie Q and Truckin, like the Jitterbug and the Lindy Hop, were popular dance moves of the period, especially in Harlem dance halls like the Savoy Ballroom through the 1930s. These two plaster works are a very scarce pair of sculptures by Augusta Savage. We have located only a few other examples. Hayes fig 9, p. 31 and fig. 20, p. 61.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin. Plaster painted dark brown, circa 1929. 229x146x111 mm; 9x5 3/4x4<3/8> inches. With the artist's signature incised, verso. Provenance: private collection, New York (1992); private collection, New York (1999). An iconic image of the Harlem Renaissance in sculpture, this excellent example of Gamin has the fine modelling and sensitivity that made this work so celebrated. Savage made smaller versions of Gamin after her life-size plaster and subsequent bronze. A similar cast is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Recent research has established the identity of the subject of Gamin. The Smithsonian American Art Museum located a May 1940 article in the Chicago Defender referencing the model as Savage's "little nephew" who had come to live with his aunt in Harlem after his home in Florida was damaged by a hurricane. Curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, organizer of the exhibition Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman at the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, further demonstrates that the model was her nephew. In the Augusta Savage Papers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hayes found the following Savage quotation in a 1935 interview with the Federal Art Commission: "I bought some materials, set a dry goods box on the living room table, stood my nephew alongside the table, and worked practically all night, till we were both exhausted." Gamin was a turning point in Savage's career. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Gamin brought Savage success at the end of the 1920s. Out of 10 works on display at Harlem's 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library, Charles Russell Richards, the art director of the General Education Board of New York, singled out Savage, recognizing Gamin as a significant work. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson explain how two Harlem businessmen, Eugene Kinckle Jones, of the National Urban League, and John E. Nail, father-in-law of James Weldon Jones, also singled out Gamin for acclaim. Daniel Schulman also notes how the sculpture helped Savage win the first Rosenwald Fund fellowship ever awarded to a visual artist in May of 1929 - the president of the Rosenwald Fund Edwin Embree even ordered a cast of Gamin for himself. Gamin was illustrated on the cover of June issue of the magazine Opportunity that year. Hayes p. 69; Leininger-Miller pp. 178-179; Bearden/Henderson p. 172; Schulman pp. 52-54.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1900-1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing 1939 22k gold dipped metal, stamped ‘Augusta Savage’ and ‘WORLDS FAIR 1939’, with original Augusta Savage Studios paper label on underside height 11in (28cm); width 9in (23cm); depth 4in (10cm)
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Head of a Young Girl (Martiniquaise). Painted plaster mounted on a marble base, circa 1925-35. Approximately 165 mm; 6 3/4 inches high, 285 mm; 11 1/4 inches high, including the base. With the artist's signature stamp at the edge of the base verso. Provenance: Sarah West, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, New York. Sarah West was a close friend of Augusta Savage; she taught textiles, block prints and metal crafts at the Harlem Community Art Center during the WPA period (1937 -1942) when Savage was the director. West owned other important sculptures by Savage, including Gamin and Terpsichore, and paintings by fellow WPA instructors Rex Goreleigh and Norman Lewis (see lot 22). This head appears to fit the title of a work listed by Savage as Martiniquaise or Head of a Martinique Woman made in Paris circa 1930 at the same time as Terpsichore. The modelling of the head is similar to Head of a Boy circa 1935, which is mounted on a very similar marble base. Bearden/Henderson p. 180. Thanks to Theresa Leininger-Miller for her assistance in this research.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing. White metal cast with a bronze patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York, with the small title plate and printed paper label on the base. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Augusta Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon and Rosamund Johnson's anthem Lift Every Voice. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the Fair was over, but a number of these smaller, souvenir versions were cast.
AUGUSTA CHRISTINE FELLS SAVAGE (AMERICAN, 1892-1962), CAST PLASTER SCULPTURE, C. 1930, H 9", W 5 3/4", L 4", "GANIN":Signed on verso; titled on front; bronze color patina. Ex. Coll./Estate Clara Belle Johnston, St Clair Shores, MI. Mrs. Johnston was a school teacher (may have been an art teacher) for over 50 years and retired in the late 1970's. Purchased by the consignor at a 'cleaning out the house' sale from the family of Ms. Johnston, c. 2003-2004.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing. White metal cast with black patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York, with her printed paper label on the base. Provenance: The estate of William Watson Hines III, New York. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Augusta Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon and Rosamund Johnson's anthem Lift Every Voice. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the Fair was over, but a number of these smaller, souvenir versions were cast. When the commission was finished, Savage was left unemployed and destitute - she was forced to give up her career as an artist. In the mid 1940s, Savage lived a reclusive life in Saugerties, New York, where she began to explore her interest in writing. In 1962, Savage returned to New York City and died of cancer later that same year.
Augusta Christine Fells Savage (American, 1892-1962), "For the Youngest Delegate"-1982, posthumously cast bronze figural sculpture after a 1936 soap carving by the artist, side with "SAVAGE", back with "19" for the number in the edition above "N.NC. 1936 To the youngest Delegate". Figural sculpture depicting a charming child's face at center of a oval medallion or cartouche, sculpture supported on a green marble rectangular plinth base. Overall approximate height 6"x 1.75". Provenance: From the Private Collection of Benno & Babette Rothschild, Columbus, Georgia. Note: Savage is a noted African American sculpture and artist associated with her contributions within the Harlem Renaissance. In 1939, she was commissioned to create a sculpture for the New York World's Fair.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing. Cast white metal, with a silver patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "World's Fair 1939" at the base edge. Cast by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York. Provenance: private collection; thence by descent to a private collection, Georgia. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon's and Rosamund Johnson's anthem, Lift Every Voice. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the fair was over, but these smaller, souvenir versions were cast by the artist.
AFTER AUGUSTA SAVAGE (american 1900-1962)/span "GAMIN" Inscribed 'Savage' on base verso, also inscribed 'Gamin' bottom center, bronze with brown patina Height: 8 3/4 in. (22.2cm) provenance: /spanThe Estate of David Copley, former publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Private Collection, California.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Nude Torso. Painted plaster, mounted on a wood base, circa 1931-35. Approximately 406x228x228 mm; 16 1/4x9x9 inches (not including base). Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; Edythe Williams Scott, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, South Carolina. The young model who posed for the artist was gifted the sculpture, and it has remained in her family for more than 80 years. Edythe Williams Scott, the model, was an accomplished designer, artist, and educator who had a life-long association with the arts. Her family moved from Florida to Harlem in 1917, and her artistic talents were soon recognized while she was at the Textile High School at 124 West 30th Street. A 1921 Evening World newspaper article describes how she won the national design competition Good Taste in Dress for Young Girls at the age of 17. In 1924, Mrs. Scott won a scholarship to the New York School of Fine Arts; an award that was withdrawn when school officials discovered that she was African-American. She was a founding member of the Art Students Club, exhibiting in Harlem during the Renaissance, and studied under Augusta Savage at the Savage School of Arts and Crafts. She graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. Mrs. Scott was the first African-American and first female vocational teacher to be appointed to McKee High School, where she taught commercial art and dressmaking until 1966. Although teaching full-time, Mrs. Scott continued to paint for more than thirty years. Mrs. Scott was a member of the Executive Board of the Council of the Arts, and a member of the Executive Board of the Section of Arts of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences for 27 years. This extraordinarily scarce find is the first nude figure by the Harlem Renaissance sculptor to come to auction. Very few standing figures in plaster by Augusta Savage are known to survive today. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Savage returned from Paris with about twenty sculptures. Made in the early 1930s, likely in her Harlem studio school, it demonstrates her skill and classical training in figurative sculpture. By 1932, Savage was elected to the National Association of Women Painters, was represented by Argent Galleries and founded the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. In addition to Edythe Williams Scott, Savage's students included such important artists as Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Norman Lewis, William Artis and Ernest Crichlow. In 1933, Savage expanded her studio and founded the Harlem Art Workshop at 306 West 141st Street. By 1937, Savage was named the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center, under the auspices of the WPA. Bearden/Henderson pp. 173 and 317; Farrington pp. 103-105; Leininger-Miller pp. 200-201.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing. White metal with copper patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Provenance: private New York collection. Augusta Savage was one of the most influential artists and educators of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Green Cove Springs, Florida, she received formal training at the Cooper Union School of Art from 1921-1924. Savage was the recipient of two successive Rosenwald Grants in 1930 and 1931, which enabled her to travel to France and study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. When she returned to New York in 1932, she opened the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in Harlem, where her students included William Artis, Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis. Augusta Savage became known for her sensitive and skillful modeling of the human figure in painted plaster and bronze - mostly small-scale portraits and busts like her celebrated Gamin. In 1935, she was a founding member of the Harlem Artists Guild, and from 1936-1937 she worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project as the Director of the Harlem Community Art Center. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon and Rosamund Johnson's anthem Lift Every Voice. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the Fair was over, but a number of these smaller, souvenir versions were cast. When the commission was finished, Savage was left unemployed and destitute - she was forced to give up her career as an artist. In the mid 1940s, Savage lived a reclusive life in Saugerties, New York, where she began to explore her interest in writing. In 1962, Savage returned to New York City and died of cancer later that same year.
Augusta Christine Fells Savage (African American; 1892 - 1962) Gamin Plaster c. 1930. Inscribed and signed. Born in Green Cove Springs, Florida in 1892, Augusta Savage began molding clay at an early age. Despite great opposition from her family, Savage was determined to pursue a career in the arts as a sculptor. She moved to New York to study sculpture at the Cooper Union School of Art, where she was soon commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois and other African American leaders including Marcus Garvey. In 1924 the sculpture of her nephew, Gamin, won the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which gave her the opportunity to study in Paris for one year. After returning home from Europe, Savage shared her art and experiences by establishing the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts to provide adult art education. She also later became the first director of the Harlem Community Arts Center, where she played a crucial role in the development of young African American artists. This art center became a model for others across the country, including Chicago's Southside Community Art Center. From 1936-1937, Savage was a project supervisor for the WPA Federal Arts Project. She left this postion to work on a commission for the 1939 New York World's Fair, a monumental sculpture called "Lift Every Voice and Sing" or "The Harp". It stood over 16 feet tall and was the most popular and most photographed work of the fair. Sadly, she lacked the funds necessary to get it cast in bronze or moved and stored, and it was destroyed. After this great disappointment, Augusta Savage lived out her remaining years in relative anonymity focusing instead on family and writing. Savage's sculptural focus was the human figure, predominantly children and portraits of friends. She worked in plaster painted to resemble bronze. Though her art and influence within the art community is well documented, the location of much of her work is unknown. Gamin is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution. 9" H.
(ART.) SAVAGE, AUGUSTA--TERESA STAATS. Lift Every Voice and Sing. Gelatin silver print photograph, 9-3/4 x 7-3/4 inches, mounted on a large piece of cardboard (14 x 11) , with the title, the photographer's name and date of the photograph in pencil on the mount. New York, 1940-1941
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Lift Every Voice and Sing. White metal cast with copper patina, painted gold, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "World's Fair 1939" at the base. Cast by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York. Provenance: private New York collection. A life-size version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon's and Rosamund Johnson's anthem, Lift Every Voice. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the fair was over, but these smaller, souvenir versions were cast by the artist. When the commission was finished, Savage was left unemployed and destitute, and she was forced to give up her career as an artist. In the mid 1940s, Savage lived a reclusive life in Saugerties, NY, where she began to explore her interest in writing. In 1962, Savage returned to New York City, but died of cancer later that same year.
