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The stylized hair and soft rounded forms are in harmony with the images of the sea, the goddess, and Art Deco sculpture of the 1920s and 1930s.

This small bronze figure is tied to the mythological goddess of love and her birth from the foam of the sea.

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Paul Manship

Venus Anadyomene, 1924

Bronze on marble base

H: 8 1/8 D: 9 in.

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. M. D. Ratner

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Paul Manship was born in Minnesota and began studying art at St. Paul School of Art.  At nineteen he moved to Philadelphia to continue his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  Manship then went to New York where he enrolled at the Art Students League and later served as an assistant to the sculptor of Western themes Solon Borglum from whom he gained knowledge of animal anatomy.  Manship won the coveted Prix de Rome and a fellowship to study for three years at the American Academy of Rome.  While there he developed an interest in classical and archaic Greek art.  Upon returning to America these combined influences resulted in a style that attracted both modernists and conservatives in its simplification of line and detail making Manship a successful sculptor.  While working in Paris he created a number of sculptures which embodied a stylized form that was uniquely his own.  During his career, Manship produced over 700 works.

Venus Anadyomene is tied to the mythological goddess of love and her birth from the foam of the sea.  The tumbling cascade of wavy hair and the liquid flow of soft, rounded forms are in perfect harmony with images of the sea, the goddess, and the sculpture of the Art Deco era.  Manship lavished attention on the surfaces of his sculpture and here the rich, brown coloring has been rubbed away from her hair to add highlights.

Reference

Susan Rathner.  Archaism, Modernism, and the Art of Paul Manship, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-0292760356