GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Lady Godiva is the first life-sized marble figure executed by Anne Whitney, one of America’s premiere women sculptors working during the second half of the 19th century. For her own interpretation of the medieval heroine, Whitney most likely consulted Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Godiva (1842), one of the most popular and recent poems to treat the Godiva story. Whereas most visual representations depict Godiva’s nude ride, Whitney has chosen to represent the moment when she accepts her husband’s challenge. Still fully clothed, she has only just started to remove her girdle, alluding to the narrative’s dramatic climax. The belt itself, with its eagle-shaped clasps, is a direct reference to the Tennyson poem. Intriguingly, Godiva looks upward rather than toward the viewer, recalling the heavenward gaze of saints and other holy figures. Whitney most likely employed this gaze to underscore the morality of Godiva’s decision, since she undertook the ride for the sake of her subjects.
Adapted from
Olivier Meslay, Unpublished material, 2011.
NOTES
Anne Whitney (1821-1915) born Watertown, MA, died Boston
Second Fun Fact Source: Hirshler, Erka E.? A studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston, 1870-1940 Boston: MFA Publications, 2001 p. 199
"A fervent abolitionist and women's rights advocate, she was a passionate advocate for social equality throughout her life, and her choice of subjects—radical statesmen, suffragettes, and freedom fighters—reflected her political concerns."
c. 1861-1864
Studied sculpture in New York and Philadelphia
1867 went to Rome, 1871 back in USA
No education file for Whitney.
No label text, public notes, or text entries.
No exhibitions linked through module or in text field.
Biblio- text field
Payne, Elizabeth Rogers. “Anne Whitney: Art and Social Justice.” The Massachusetts Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1971): 245-260.
Reitzes, Lisa B. “The Political Voice of the Artist: Anne Whitney’s Roma and Harriet Martineau,” American Art 8, no. 2 (Spring 1994): 44-65.
Severson, Christine Kaye. Living Liminality: A Study of Anne Whitney’s Sculpture, Poetry and Letters. Ann Arbor: University Microform International, 2007.
Biblio- module- also has lots of entries-
NOTES ON SCULPTURE: Sara Woodbury, "Anne Whitney and 'Lady Godiva': An Overview," DMA research document, Collections Records Object File, May 16, 2011.
- Lady Godiva
- Dates vary from 1860-1861, 1862-1863, or 1861-1864. 1 Dates can only be approximated. Since Whitney only started sculpting in earnest between 1859-1860, the 1860 date might be a bit too soon, though Alessandra Comini states that there is documentation confirming an 1860 start date.2 In any event, it was finished by 1864, since the sculpture was exhibited that year.
- Nevertheless, it is one of Whitney’s earliest sculptures, and her first life-sized marble work.3
- Source: probably Alfred Tennyson’s poem. 4
- Stylistically it’s more neoclassical and idealized than her later works, especially that of Charles Sumner.
- Early Exhibition History
- Exhibited at Childs and Jenks Art Gallery in Boston 1864. Reviews of the exhibition, starting from June, are kept in Whitney’s personal scrapbook.5
- Shown at the Sailors’ Fair in Boston, November, 1864, with Africa.6
- In New York it was featured at an exhibition at the Schaus Gallery in 1865. A review of the exhibition appeared in the New York Independent on May 4, 1865. 7
- Foreshadowing Whitney’s lifelong commitment to addressing social issues through art
- Lady Godiva legend: To protest her husband’s extreme taxation of subjects, Lady Godiva, ca. eleventh-century Countess of Coventry, accepted his challenge to ride a horse through the streets naked, at which he agreed to lighten his policy. Many artists show her in the process of riding; Whitney, on the other hand, has shown her at the moment she accepts the challenge.8
- Subject: a character who acted against injustice. Many of the subjects and sitters in Whitney’s portraits were activists, whether they were abolitionists, women’s rights advocates, or in the case of Samuel Adams, supporters of American independence.
- A call to social justice for latter-day women?
- 1860s: “In the context of the American Civil War…the Godiva challenged women in particular to vanquish justice through personal daring. It portrayed the willingness of the single woman to defy convention, sacrifice modesty and personal reputation, to achieve the salvation of others.”9
- Elizabeth Rogers Payne argues that the piece was meant to stir women to support the Union during the Civil War.10 This interpretation remains hypothetical.
-------------------------
- 1 Reitzes, 47; Christine Kaye Severson, Living Liminality: A Study of Anne Whitney’s Sculpture, Poetry, and Letters (Ann Arbor: University Microform International, 2007), 31.2 Alessandra Comini, email to Martha MacLeod, February 8, 2011. Comini also states that it was finished in 1862.3 Elizabeth Rogers Payne, “Anne Whitney: Art and Social Justice,” The Massachusetts Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1971), 247.4 Payne, 247.5 Tufts, 56, note 3.6 Payne, 247.7 Tufts, 56, note 3.8 Payne, 247.9 Sarah Foose Parrott, Expatriates and Professionals: The Careers in Italy of Nineteenth Century American Women Writers and Artists. Diss. George Washington University, 1988, 435.10 Payne, 247.
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Boston (Massachusetts/United States): TGN: 7013445
Process/materials
Marble
sculpture
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1926-1949: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, gift from Mrs. Frederick S. Whitwell [1]
1949: Isadore and Mollie Bromfield, purchased from the above
1976-2011: Dr. Eleanor Tufts and Dr. Alessandra Comini, purchased from the Bromfield family [2]
1991: Alessandra Comini, Dallas, TX, by inheritance upon the death of Eleanor Tufts
From 2011: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Alessandra Comini in memory of Dr. Eleanor Tufts
[1] The primary source for this provenance is email correspondence between Alessandra Comini, James Hutchinson, Olivier Meslay, and Carol Griffin found in the Object File.
[2] The primary source for this provenance is email correspondence between Alessandra Comini, James Hutchinson, Olivier Meslay, and Carol Griffin found in the Object File.
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IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- DMA Uncrated~Check out the Dallas Museum of Art's 2014 blog post, "Pride in the DMA: Celebrating LGBTQ Artists in the Collection."
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- The full credit line for this sculpture is "Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Alessandra Comini in memory of Dr. Eleanor Tufts, who discovered the Massachusetts-backyard whereabouts of this long-forgotten statue and brought it to Dallas."
- Anne Whitney was an impassioned advocate for women's rights and social equality, which is frequently seen in her choice of subjects, including abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and suffragette Frances Willard.
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General Description
Lady Godiva is the first life-sized marble figure executed by Anne Whitney, one of America’s premiere women sculptors working during the second half of the 19th century. For her own interpretation of the medieval heroine, Whitney most likely consulted Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Godiva (1842), one of the most popular and recent poems to treat the Godiva story. Whereas most visual representations depict Godiva’s nude ride, Whitney has chosen to represent the moment when she accepts her husband’s challenge. Still fully clothed, she has only just started to remove her girdle, alluding to the narrative’s dramatic climax. The belt itself, with its eagle-shaped clasps, is a direct reference to the Tennyson poem. Intriguingly, Godiva looks upward rather than toward the viewer, recalling the heavenward gaze of saints and other holy figures. Whitney most likely employed this gaze to underscore the morality of Godiva’s decision, since she undertook the ride for the sake of her subjects.
Adapted from
Olivier Meslay, Unpublished material, 2011.
Fun Facts
- The full credit line for this sculpture is "Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Alessandra Comini in memory of Dr. Eleanor Tufts, who discovered the Massachusetts-backyard whereabouts of this long-forgotten statue and brought it to Dallas."
- Anne Whitney was an impassioned advocate for women's rights and social equality, which is frequently seen in her choice of subjects, including abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and suffragette Frances Willard.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- DMA Uncrated~Check out the Dallas Museum of Art's 2014 blog post, "Pride in the DMA: Celebrating LGBTQ Artists in the Collection."
Notes
ON SCULPTURE: Sara Woodbury, "Anne Whitney and 'Lady Godiva': An Overview," DMA research document, Collections Records Object File, May 16, 2011.
- Lady Godiva
- Dates vary from 1860-1861, 1862-1863, or 1861-1864. 1 Dates can only be approximated. Since Whitney only started sculpting in earnest between 1859-1860, the 1860 date might be a bit too soon, though Alessandra Comini states that there is documentation confirming an 1860 start date.2 In any event, it was finished by 1864, since the sculpture was exhibited that year.
- Nevertheless, it is one of Whitney’s earliest sculptures, and her first life-sized marble work.3
- Source: probably Alfred Tennyson’s poem. 4
- Stylistically it’s more neoclassical and idealized than her later works, especially that of Charles Sumner.
- Early Exhibition History
- Exhibited at Childs and Jenks Art Gallery in Boston 1864. Reviews of the exhibition, starting from June, are kept in Whitney’s personal scrapbook.5
- Shown at the Sailors’ Fair in Boston, November, 1864, with Africa.6
- In New York it was featured at an exhibition at the Schaus Gallery in 1865. A review of the exhibition appeared in the New York Independent on May 4, 1865. 7
- Foreshadowing Whitney’s lifelong commitment to addressing social issues through art
- Lady Godiva legend: To protest her husband’s extreme taxation of subjects, Lady Godiva, ca. eleventh-century Countess of Coventry, accepted his challenge to ride a horse through the streets naked, at which he agreed to lighten his policy. Many artists show her in the process of riding; Whitney, on the other hand, has shown her at the moment she accepts the challenge.8
- Subject: a character who acted against injustice. Many of the subjects and sitters in Whitney’s portraits were activists, whether they were abolitionists, women’s rights advocates, or in the case of Samuel Adams, supporters of American independence.
- A call to social justice for latter-day women?
- 1860s: “In the context of the American Civil War…the Godiva challenged women in particular to vanquish justice through personal daring. It portrayed the willingness of the single woman to defy convention, sacrifice modesty and personal reputation, to achieve the salvation of others.”9
- Elizabeth Rogers Payne argues that the piece was meant to stir women to support the Union during the Civil War.10 This interpretation remains hypothetical.
-------------------------
- 1 Reitzes, 47; Christine Kaye Severson, Living Liminality: A Study of Anne Whitney’s Sculpture, Poetry, and Letters (Ann Arbor: University Microform International, 2007), 31.2 Alessandra Comini, email to Martha MacLeod, February 8, 2011. Comini also states that it was finished in 1862.3 Elizabeth Rogers Payne, “Anne Whitney: Art and Social Justice,” The Massachusetts Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1971), 247.4 Payne, 247.5 Tufts, 56, note 3.6 Payne, 247.7 Tufts, 56, note 3.8 Payne, 247.9 Sarah Foose Parrott, Expatriates and Professionals: The Careers in Italy of Nineteenth Century American Women Writers and Artists. Diss. George Washington University, 1988, 435.10 Payne, 247.
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Boston (Massachusetts/United States): TGN: 7013445
Process/materials
Marble
sculpture
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1926-1949: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, gift from Mrs. Frederick S. Whitwell [1]
1949: Isadore and Mollie Bromfield, purchased from the above
1976-2011: Dr. Eleanor Tufts and Dr. Alessandra Comini, purchased from the Bromfield family [2]
1991: Alessandra Comini, Dallas, TX, by inheritance upon the death of Eleanor Tufts
From 2011: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Alessandra Comini in memory of Dr. Eleanor Tufts
[1] The primary source for this provenance is email correspondence between Alessandra Comini, James Hutchinson, Olivier Meslay, and Carol Griffin found in the Object File.
[2] The primary source for this provenance is email correspondence between Alessandra Comini, James Hutchinson, Olivier Meslay, and Carol Griffin found in the Object File.
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