Oct 04, 2018 - Sale 2487

Sale 2487 - Lot 8

Price Realized: $ 15,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
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.