Dancer with Finger on Chin
model 1809/1814, carved 1819/1823
Sculptor, Italian, 1757 - 1822
West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G45
Artwork overview
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Medium
marble
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall (approximate height): 177 cm (69 11/16 in.)
weight, with attached base: 724 lbs -
Accession
2003.62.1
More About this Artwork
Article: Thinking in Clay: How Antonio Canova Made His Sculptures
A close look at the sculptor’s clay models reveals his extraordinary working process . . . and his thumbprints.
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The artist's studio; acquired c. 1823 by Charles William Stewart (later Vane), 3rd marquess of Londonderry [1778-1854], Londonderry House, London;[1] by inheritance to his son, Frederick William Robert Vane, 4th marquess of Londonderry [1805-1872], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his half-brother, George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th marquess of Londonderry [1821-1884], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th marquess of Londonderry [1852-1915]; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th marquess of Londonderry [1878-1949], Londonderry House; his estate; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1962, no. 34); purchased by M. Comer for Lillian R. Berkman [Mrs. Jack N. Berkman, formerly Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman, 1922-2001], New York; her estate; bequest 2003 to NGA.
[1] Londonderry House, formerly Holdernesse House, was bought from the 6th lord Middleton in 1822 by the 3rd marquess of Londonderry, and in the next few years was almost entirely rebuilt. Among the collection of marbles at the house, this sculpture is one that has been assumed to have been acquired by the 3rd marquess while he was Ambassador in Vienna from 1814 to 1822, but there appears to be no proof of this. A letter the marquess wrote from Rome on 20 February 1823 to one of the Wyatts concerning the project for rebuilding Holdernesse House confirms his presence there, and another possibility is that the sculpture was acquired during this visit, not long after Canova's death on 13 October 1822. See the catalogue of the 16 November 1962 Sotheby's sale (p. 14), and H. Montgomery Hyde, Londonderry House and Its Pictures, London, 1937: 16, 20, 21.
Associated Names
Bibliography
1972
Bassi, Elena. Antonio Canova a Possagno. Catalogo delle opera. Guida alla visita della Gipsoteca, Casa e Tempio. Treviso, 1972:80.
1998
Borsellino, Enzo. "Una ‘Danzatrice’ di Antonio Canova dispersa in Russia." Paragone 49 series 3, no. 19 (May 1998): 32-29, plates 1-19; esp. 7, 20 n. 20.
2009
Androsov, Sergej, Fernando Mazzocca and Antonio Paolucci with Stefano Grandesso and Francesco Leone. Canova: l’ideale classico tra scultura e pittura. Exh. cat. Musei San Domenico, Forli, 2009: 268-271, esp. 270.
2013
Penny, Nicholas. "Lord Londonderry and His Canovas." _Studi Neoclassici_1 (2013): 178-180, figs. 4-6.
2016
Penny, Nicolas. "In Pursuit of an Heiress." Review of Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, Letters of a Dead Man, edited and translated by Linda Parshall. London Review of Books no. 5,906 (22 June 2016): 23. (Refers to Pückler-Muskau's letter of June 7th, 1827 in Linda Parshall, editor and translator. Washington, 2016: 220.)
2021
Costarelli, Alessio. “Dancing Girl statues by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) belonging to Lord Londonderry: a new document and some hypotheses.” The British Art Journal 22 (Winter 2021/2022): 3-7, repro. 7, proposed as the lost statue carved 1809/1814 for Domenico Manzoni
2022
Costarelli, Alessio. Canova e gli Inglesi. Milan, 2022: 190-192, cat. 13, repro. 299, fig. 24, reaffirming the proposal in Costarelli 2021.
Wikidata ID
Q63861623