Object details
Accession number
S11e15.a-b
Creators
Full title
Maria de Acosta Sargent
Creation Date
1915
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the artist Anna Coleman Ladd (1878-1939), Boston for $1,000 on 27 July 1915.
Marks
Inscribed (below left arm): A.C. LADD SC
Foundry mark inscribed (on back of cloth below the right shoulder blade): GORHAM CO FOUNDERS
Inscribed (under side of base): 19 M 15 / Carrig Rohane Shop Inc. / Boston
Dimensions
53.3 x 43.8 x 21.6 cm (21 x 17 1/4 x 8 1/2 in.)
Display Media
Bronze
Web Commentary
Anna Coleman Ladd was born in Philadelphia in 1878. She studied sculpture in Europe and moved to Boston after her marriage in 1905. Ladd became one of the most prolific sculptors in the city and even published two novels. In 1915, her Triton Babies Fountain was installed in the Boston Public Garden, where it remains today. Ladd and Isabella were friends, and the two exchanged many letters—including one that references this bust that Isabella purchased directly from the artist. The model for this work was Maria de Acosta Sargent, the wife of Andrew R. Sargent, presumably a distant relative of the artist John Singer Sargent. Shortly after Ladd made this bust, she found a novel use for her sculptural skills. In late 1917 she founded the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait-Masks to provide prosthetic masks for men who had suffered severe facial injuries during World War I.
Permanent Gallery Location
Macknight Room
Bibliography
"New 'Macknight' Room." Unidentified Boston Newspaper (Boston, 22 Nov. 1915).
Anna Coleman Ladd. The Work of Anna Coleman Ladd (Boston, 1920), n.p. (on "Portrait of a Lady," a marble replica of this bronze)
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 242.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 74.
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 163.
Rights and reproductions
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