SARGENT CLAUDE JOHNSON (1888 - 1967) Bust of Margery Livingston.
Terra cotta, partially glazed, circa 1940. Approximately 140 mm; 5 1/2 inches high.
Provenance: the artist, San Francisco; Arthur W. Hanna, San Francisco; private collection, San Francisco.
San Franciscan carpenter and cabinet-maker Arthur W. Hanna met Sargent Johnson shortly after Hanna's military service in 1945 when both men were residents of the soon-to-be bohemian North Beach neighborhood. Sargent Johnson had set up his studio a few blocks down Grant Avenue from Hanna's workshop on Telegraph Hill; they met at the local hardware store and became friends. Hanna built bases and pedestals for Johnson's work. Johnson gave him this sculpture from his studio in the early 1960s.
This bust is an expressive portrait of Margery Livingston (1920 - 1997), who was a noted weaver and textile designer, as well as a supervisor of the WPA Weaving Project in San Francisco. She was also the wife of the artist John Magnani, the potter in whose kiln Johnson fired. Livingston became the head of the art department at San Francisco State University, where she taught from 1949, and was a leading figure in the Bay Area arts and crafts community.
