Poplar wood sculpture, 1931. Approximately 355 mm; 14 inches high. Inscribed "Leslie G. Bolling" on the back.
Provenance: Ex-collection James A. Porter; hence by descent to his daughter, Constance Porter-Uzelac. The artist and art historian James A. Porter purchased both sculptures directly from the artist in 1934.
Exhibitions: Freeing Art from Wood, Barbara C. Batson, The Library of Virginia, The University of Virginia, Richmond, 2006, pp. 82-83.
Leslie Garland Bolling was a largely self-taught artist whose carved figurative sculptures achieved national attention during his lifetime. Their inclusion in exhibitions by Carl Van Vechten, the Harmon Foundation and in James A. Porter's Modern Negro Art, published in 1943, helped establish him as an important Black sculptor. He had 4 works in the landmark Exhibition of Works by Negro Arts at the National Gallery of Washington, D.C. in 1929. Bolling used the same female model for both this sculpture and New Moon. Her full forms, carved with a pocket knife and left unpainted in both works, recall the work of Gaston Lachaise. Barbara C. Batson, Freeing Art from Wood, The Library of Virginia, pp. 82-83, Batson 19.
