META VAUX WARRICK FULLER (1877 - 1968) Silence and Repose.
Pair of plaster bookends, painted gold, circa 1934. Both approximately 165x125x100 mm; 6 1/2x5x4 inches. Both incised with artist's initials.
Provenance: private Massachusetts collection.
Silence and Repose is a well known pair of works from Fuller's mid-career, and are described and photographed by her biographer, art historian Judith Kerr, in her 1986 doctoral thesis. A set was in the artist's Framingham home after she married Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, and was considered "the artist's most significant work of 1934." Kerr describes how the symbolism of Silence and Repose are in "the tradition of 'ideal' sculpture" to epitomize contemplation and enlightenment--a fitting theme for objects associated with a library. Kerr pp. 293-4.
