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A muscular, nearly nude Black man reclines on a lion’s skin in this freestanding bronze sculpture. In this photograph, his head is to our left and his feet extend to our right. His face tips down, and he has short, curly hair, a furrowed brow, and a small, rounded nose. His full lips are closed, and he has hollows in his cheeks. He leans onto his right elbow, closer to us, which rests on an object, perhaps a basket. His right knee is raised so that foot is flat on the ground. He clutches the bent leg just below the knee with his other hand, and his left leg stretches long. The lion’s head, with eyes closed, rests beneath the bent knee. Long fur, hair, or another material hangs from a rope around the man’s waist. He and the pelt rest on a narrow rectangular base. The dark patina of the bronze has been burnished or rubbed gold in some areas, especially along the ridges of the man’s muscles and on the extended foot.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

Allegory of Africa, model 1863/1865, cast date unknown

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 3

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

overall: 31.8 x 50.6 x 16.8 cm (12 1/2 x 19 15/16 x 6 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the 50th Anniversary Gift Committee

Accession Number

1991.84.1

Artists / Makers

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (artist) French, 1834 - 1904

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

cast in on top of base, along edge parallel to extended left leg: A BARTHOLDI

Provenance

Brigadier James Orme M. Ashton, O.B.E. [1908-1989], Welston Court, Milton, Tenby, Wales; (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London), by 1990; purchased 15 February 1991 by NGA.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Ashton, J.O.M., Brigadier

Exhibition History

1991: Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, supplement to catalogue, color repro.

Bibliography

1992: Agnew's 1982-1992. Exh. cat. Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1992: 192, pl. 174.

1992: National Gallery of Art. 1991 Annual Report. Washington, D.C., 1991: 16, repro. 17.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 24, repro.

2000: Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 4-7, color repro.