Nymph of the Fields

1915

Carlo Pittaluga

Artist, Italian, active early 20th century

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G45

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Antonio Frilli, Florence;[1] purchased 1915 in San Francisco by Frank Duncan MacPherson Strachan [1871-1931], Brunswick, Georgia; by inheritance in the Strachan family until 1966; moved after January 1966 to Strachan summer house, St. Simon's Island, Georgia;[2] purchased with the house August 1966 by the Hon. William S. Stuckey, Jr., St. Simon's Island, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.;[3] gift 1975 to NGA.
[1] Nymph of the Fields, along with Nymph of the Woods (NGA 1975.101.2), were exhibited by Mr. Frilli at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. A photograph (copy in NGA curatorial files) that illustrates the two marbles on display was used in a number of "Daily Programs" for the exposition. Mr. Frilli advertised as being "the largest exporter of Marble Statuary in the world." He was a member of the International Jury of Awards for the exposition, and thus could not display any of the marbles for competition.
[2] The inheritance in the Strachan family probably went from Frank Duncan MacPherson Strachan, Sr., to his son, who was named after his father and who died in 1966, and then to the son's widow. It was apparently after the death of F.D.M. Strachan, Jr., in January 1966, that the two sculptures were moved from the Strachan house in Brunswick to the garage of the family's summer house on St. Simon's Island, because no one in the family wanted them. The house on St. Simon's Island was purchased from Mrs. F.D.M. Strachan, Jr., and her daughter, Mary B. Strachan (Mrs. William A.) Dunn. (See the memorandum recording a phone conversation of 6 May 1980 between Doug Lewis and Frank G. Strachan, nephew of the senior F.D.M. Strachan, in NGA curatorial files.)
[3] Mr. Stuckey was a Congressman from Georgia. When he offered the two sculptures to the NGA, they were on the patio of his residence in Washington, D.C. (See the letter of 15 January 1975 to Doug Lewis, in NGA curatorial files.)

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1915

  • Italian Section of the Palace of Manufactures and Varied Industries, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915.

Bibliography

1980

  • Berman, Harold. Bronzes: Sculptors & Founders 1800-1930. 5 vols. Chicago, 1974-1981: 4(1980): no. 3147, repro.

1981

  • Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover: Carlo Pittaluga, Nymph of the Fields." Journal of the American Medical Association 245, no. 11 (20 March 1981): cover, 1160, color repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 175, repro.

1999

  • Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

2008

  • Penny, Nicholas. "The Evolution of the Plinth, Pedestal, and Socle." In Collecting Sculpture in Early Modern Europe. Nicholas Penny and Eike D. Schmidt, eds. Studies in the History of Art 70, Symposium Papers 47 (2008): 461-462, fig. 2.

Inscriptions

on base, outside edge under proper left foot: PITTALUGA (chip at upper part of L and U)

Wikidata ID

Q63854571

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