Dancer and Gazelles

Artist Paul Manship (American, 1885-1966)

DateModeled 1916, this cast about 1922

DimensionsH: 72 in. (183 cm); W: 73 1/2 in. (186.7 cm)

Mediumbronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1923.24

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Peristyle Lobby

Collections

Sculpture

Published References

International Studio, July 1923, p. 353, repr.

Chase, G. H. and Post C. R., A History of Sculpture, NY, 1924, illus. p. 520.

Vitry, Paul, Paul Manship, Sculpteur Américan, Paris, 1927, p. 39.

Toledo Museum News, no. 51, May 1928, repr. on cover.

Casson, Stanley, XXth Century Sculptors London, Oxford Univeristy Press, 1930, p. 53.

Cahill, Holger and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Art in America in Modern Times, New York, Reynal and Hitchcock, 1934, repr. p. 58.

Murtha, Edwin, Paul Manship, New York, MacMillan, 1957, pp. 14, 158, pl. 17.

Encyclopedia of World Art, vol. 1, New York, 1959, p. 318.

American Sculpture 1900-1965, Flint Institute of Art, 1965, no. 47, p. 16, repr. p. 3.

Solender, Katherine, The American Way in Sculpture 1890-1930, Cleveland, 1986, no. 45. (not in exhib.).

Gustafson, Eleanor H., "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol. 132, no. 4, Oct. 1987, p. 688.

Rand, Harry, Paul Manship, Washington, 1989, p. 47 & [cf.] pp. 39, 40-41, 44,45, 47-48, fig. 29 & 34.

Conner, Janis and Joel Rosencranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, Austin, 1989, p. 193.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 158, repr. (col.).

Albert Paley: Age of Steel, Provo, UT, 1996, p. 21.

Lucie-Smith, Edward, The Art of Albert Paley: Iron, Bronze, Steel, New York, Abrams, 1996, p. 170, 218.

Tolles, Thayer, ed., American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 2, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 760.

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, p. 42.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 183-184, repr. (col.) p. 183.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 314, repr. (col.).

Gribaudo, Paola, Albert Paley on Park Avenue, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2013, repr. (col.) p. 22.

Exhibition History

Flint Institute of Art, American Sculpture 1900-1965, 1965, no. 47.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Leach, Frederick, Paul Howard Manship an Intimate View: Sculpture and Drawings from the Permanent Collection of the Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, 1972, pp. 3-4. Cf. Rather, Susan, "The past Made Modern: Archaism in American Sculpture," Arts, vol. 59, no. 3, p. 111, fig. 1. Cf. Rather, Susan, "Paul Manship, Archaism, and the Dance," Antiques, vol. 140, no. 2, Aug. 1991, p. 225, 226, repr. p. 227. Cf. Rather, Susan, Archaism, Modernism and the Art of Paul Manship, Austin TX, 1993, pp. 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 128, 161, 175, 216, no. 86, fig. 60, p. 117.Label TextWith its streamlined forms, fluid and graceful motion, and appreciation of classical subjects, Paul Manship’s sculpture was an important precursor to the Art Deco style. Manship deftly straddled the traditional taste for decorative beauty and the Modernist appreciation for simplified, abstracted form. In his works of great charm he was able to fuse elements from a wide range of cultures and eras, introducing a revitalizing freshness to American sculpture. This talent is displayed superbly in Dancers with Gazelles, one of his most famous compositions. The rhythmic grace of the group, the decorative detail along the sides of the base and the costume’s hem, and the curvilinear contours recall painting and sculpture from India. Indeed, Manship’s motif of a woman flanked by two gazelles may derive from a similar theme of dancing figures with animals found in Indian miniature painting.