Oct 08, 2019 - Sale 2518

Sale 2518 - Lot 13

Price Realized: $ 21,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962)
Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp).

White metal cast with a silver patina, circa 1939. Approximately 270x240x100 mm; 10 3/4x9 1/2x4 inches. Incised signature and "Worlds Fair 1939" at the base. Published by Augusta Savage Studios, Inc., New York, with the small title plate and the printed paper label on the base.

Provenance: private collection, New York.

This cast is an excellent example of this iconic sculpture by Augusta Savage. A monumental, nearly 16-foot high plaster version of Lift Every Voice and Sing was commissioned by the 1939 New York World's Fair committee in 1937. Augusta Savage left the WPA to work on this monumental project, inspired by James Weldon and J. Rosamund Johnson's hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing. Sadly, the original work was destroyed when the fair was over - it is known today only from photographs and a number of these smaller, souvenir versions cast by the artist.