Apr 22, 2021 - Sale 2565

Sale 2565 - Lot 22

Price Realized: $ 87,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 75,000 - $ 100,000
RICHMOND BARTHÉ (1901 - 1989)
Stevedore.

Cast bronze with a dark brown patina on a green marble base, 1937. 778x508x368 mm; 30 5/8x20x14 1/2 inches (not including marble base). Cast in 1986 under the supervision of the artist and the Richmond Barthé Trust. Incised with artist's signature, date, numbered 3/8 and incised "©", right base edge.

Provenance: private collection, Los Angeles.

This iconic work by Richmond Barthé is an important and large bronze by the artist made at the peak of his career. Margaret Vendryes describes this sculpture of muscular dock worker standing on a i-beam in great length - he is both "Barthé's most virile male figure" and "a personal statement". With the epitome of a chiseled physique and commanding presence, the figure of a longshoreman was elevated to great heights by the artist. Barthé had created both a new type of masculine presence in his oeuvre, and a new depiction of a powerful black man.

Stevedore was a non-commissioned work made from the artist's own funds. Vendryes describes how Barthé kept it out of storage and with him when he moved. He later gifted his cast to the St. Ann's Parish Public Library in Jamaica. This is only the second time a cast of Stevedore has come to auction: another was sold at Swann Galleries on October 15, 2017. Another example of this 1985 casting is the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Vendryes pp. 92-96.