Nov 17, 2011 - Sale 2262

Sale 2262 - Lot 92

Price Realized: $ 18,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
WILLIAM ZORACH
The Family.

Bronze sculpture with dark brownish patina, 1957. 420 mm; 16 1/2 inches (height). With the artist's signature, date and the foundry mark "Modern Art Fdry NY" lower verso.

The seminal 1913 Armory Show in New York accepted two paintings by Lithuanian-born artist William Zorach (1889-1966). But his interests in sculpture, beginning in 1917, soon eclipsed his success as a painter and he devoted himself fully to sculpture by 1922. His earliest wood-carved sculpture is Two Children of 1922 and shortly thereafter a portrait head of his wife was his first execution in stone, soon he was casting monumental sculptures in bronze.

Zorach found immense richness in the subject matter of the family. Presented here is a symbolic depiction of familial relationships, that offers a window to tender moments within the artist's own family. Biblical imagery is a common subject in Zorach's body of work, and the common forms and gestures across his various family depictions show his sense of the undying bonds of family. His children and wife were not the only models for his work, but they were exceptionally potent sitters. The warmth of their interactions, to which he had access as father and husband, is captured here. His observations of his own family serve as a departure point for symbolic and biblical family scenes, as vibrant restatements of the classic theme of the love between family members.