Primavera

1890-1892

Herbert Adams

Associated Names
Herbert Adams

Sculptor, American, 1858 - 1945

The sculpture is a bust of a young woman. She has a serene expression on her face and her hair is styled against her head with a hint of volume at the front. The sculpture is light-colored, with pale, marble-like skin. She wears a deep teal attire, contrasting with her skin tone. The base of the bust features ornamental details in a dark, bronze-like material, with "PRIMAVERA" engraved on a central scroll-like feature. The sculpture appears lifelike as it is displayed.
Skip thumbnail navigation
Back to thumbnail navigation
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Collection of the artist [1858-1945], New York; by inheritance to his wife, Adeline Valentine Pond Adams [1859-1948], Brooklyn, and Plainfield, New Hampshire; purchased 1946 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1892

  • Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, Society of American Artists, New York, 1892, no. 1.

  • Fourth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Club of Philadelphia, 1892, no. 87.

1893

  • Fine Arts Exhibition, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, Group 139, no. 1.

1921

  • Winter Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1921, no. 205.

1923

  • Exhibition of American Sculpture, National Sculpture Society, New York, 1923, unnumbered checklist.

1926

  • Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Contributed by Artist Members of the Galleries, Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1926.

1975

  • Academy: The Academic Tradition in American Art, National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, 6 June - 1 September 1975, no. 111.

1983

  • The Quest for Unity: American Art Between World's Fairs, 1876-1893, Detroit Institute of Arts, 24 August - 30 October 1983, no. 72.

1993

  • Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair, National Museum of American Art (now Smithsonain American Art Museum), Washington, 1993, no. 114, repro.

Bibliography

1892

  • "At the Art Club Some of the Pictures...at the Fourth Annual Exhibition of Oils." Philadelphia Inquirer (20 November 1892): 9.

  • "Work by Sculptors at the Society." New York Times (12 May 1892): 4.

1893

  • "Art Works Chosen. Work of the Selecting Juries of New York." Chicago Daily Tribune (January 1893): sec. 2, 9.

  • Coffin, William A. "The Columbian Exposition. I. Fine Arts: French and American Sculpture." The Nation (1893): 81.

  • "The Sculpture at the Big Fair." New York Herald (September 1893): 30.

  • "Brillian Work of American Sculpture." Chicago Daily Tribune (September 1893): 34.

  • Larned, Walter Cransted. Art Clippings from the pen of Walter Cransted Larned and Other Critics of the Fair: Architecture and Sculpture. Chicago, 1893: 23.

1921

  • Lloyd, David. "National Academy Fall Show Open." New York Evening Post (November 1921): 5.

  • Cortissoz, Royal. "The Academy. Landscape Paintings, Sculpture and Prints." New York Tribune (December 1921): sec. 4, 7.

1930

  • Taft, Lorado. The History of America Sculpture. New York, 1930: 543, repro. 544.

1971

  • Holler, Katherine Derry. "Herbert Adams, American Sculptor." M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, Newark, 1971: 8, 103-104.

1972

  • Rheims, Maurice. Sculpture au XIX siècle. Paris, 1972: 407, 416.

1976

  • Broun, Elizabeth. "American Painting and Sculpture in the Fine Arts Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1976: 50-52, 245.

1978

  • Fink, Louis Marie. "The Innovation of Tradition in Late Nineteenth-Century American Art." _American Art Journal_10, no. 2 (November 1978): 65.

1983

  • Lantz, Michael. "Two Cities: Part II. The Chicago Contribution." Sculpture Review, 32, no. 1 (Spring 1983): 10.

1984

  • Craven, Wayne. Sculpture in America. Newark and New York, 1984: 435, repro. 459.

1994

  • Türr, Karina. Farbe und Naturalismus in der Skulptur des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts: Sculpturae Vitam Insufflat Pictura. Mainz, 1994: 68, 216, 286.

2000

  • Hyson, Marilyn Gage. Profile of Herbert Adams, 1858-1945, Sculptor. Princeton, 2000: 21, 101, 104.

  • Tolles, Thayer, ed. American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Volume 1. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865. New York, 2000: 156.

2003

  • Tolles, Thayer. "'In a Class by Themselves': Polychrome Portraits by Herbert Adams." In Thayer Tolles, ed. Perspectives on American Sculpture before 1925. New York and New Haven, 2003: 64, 65, 68, 76.

Inscriptions

on front: PRIMAVERA; on back: HERBERT ADAMS

Wikidata ID

Q63864010

You may be interested in

Loading Results