Details

Title

Adolescent Girl (Torso)

Artist/Maker

Charles Despiau (French, 1874–1946)

Date

1929

Medium

Plaster

Dimensions

49 5/8 x 18 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from Irene and Howard Stein

Accession #

2004.2

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 208

Charles Despiau was one of the leading French sculptors in the generation following Rodin. However, instead of continuing the older artist’s Romantic vision, he chose a more classical approach inspired by Greek art. This sculpture represents the final phase in a composition Despiau first conceived in the early 1920s. Beginning with the conventional figure of a standing girl, he gradually fragmented the full-length form until only the torso remained. The result is a severely reduced figure that nonetheless evokes beauty and elegance.