BARTHE RICHMOND Head of a Faun

Sale 2068 - Lot 102

Price Realized: $ 9,200

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000

BARTHE, RICHMOND. Head of a Faun. Plaster cast, 73/4 high, mounted on a 51/2 inch high wooden base. Total height 131/4 inches. Plaster surface is patinaed to resemble bronze verdegris; the base painted tan. Incised and dated "Barthe 31" in block letters at the top of the head. Some professional restoration to the surface, with a signed statement from the restorer. [New York?], 1931

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Additional Details

Barthé (1901-89) was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At eighteen, Barthé, now residing in New Orleans, won his first prize--a blue ribbon for a drawing he sent to the County Fair. In 1924, with the aid of the Reverend Harry Kane S.S.I, Barthé, with less than a high school education and no formal training in art, was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago. Graduating in 1929, Barthe moved to New York City and was immediately drawn into the Harlem Renaissance movement. Over the next decades, Barthe made his reputation as a sculptor of exceptional talent. Barthe's "Faun" is believed to have been inspired by Claude Debussy's tone poem "Apremidi d'un Faun" (1894).
The "Head of a Faun" was first exhibited at the D. Caz-Delbo Galleries, at the Maison Francais at Rockefeller Plaza in 1933. The patinaed surface of the piece was created for that exhibit because a bronze casting had not yet been made. It was subsequently exhibited in the Harmon Foundation's Catlaogue for 1934.