Paul Howard Manship (American, 1885-1966), A bronze figure g...

Estimate

£10,000 - £20,000

Paul Howard Manship (American, 1885-1966), A bronze figure group of Vivien, daughter of Evelyn St George, running alongside a labrador, on a marble base, signed and dated 1921 and lightly inscribed 'To Mrs St. George from Paul Manship 1921' 25cm long and 22cm high

Provenance: from the estate of the late Antonia Cole, granddaughter of Evelyn St George.

Florence Evelyn Baker married Howard Bligh St George in 1891, and some years later started a long affair with his cousin, the artist William Orpen. She moved to London in 1912 where she met many of the successful artists of the day, including Paul Manship, who was at the time living in London with John Singer Sargent.

In 1924, Manship made a bronze portrait of Evelyn's daughter, Vivien St George, now in the Brooklyn Museum (inv. no. 2008.68). Later, Evelyn commissioned a portrait of her granddaughter Antonia, aged four. This portrait was sold most recently at Sotheby's, European Sculpture & Works of Art, July 2nd 2024, lot 292.

A similar bronze was offered as lot 45 in the 1939 Sotheby & Co auction of 'The Important Contents of Cam House, Campden Hill, W8, the property of Evelyn St George'

Paul Manship was one of America's foremost sculptors of the era, and a major force in the Art Deco movement. He trained under the sculptor Solon Borglum for several years, before studying under Charles Grafly and Isidore Konti. Among his most prominent commissions are Prometheus in the Rockefeller Center, and the Celestial Sphere Woodrow Wilson Memorial in Geneva