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Cast from brown bronze, a stylized, nude woman reclines on an oval-shaped, wooden platform in this free-standing sculpture. In this photograph, the base is angled away from us so her head, to our right, is farther from us than her feet. She has a round, bare head with slits for eyes, a low ridge for a nose, and her lips are set in a straight line. She leans along the left side of her body. Her right arm drapes down across her midsection, and her thighs are stacked, with the foot of her top leg resting behind the bottom foot. Her features, including her arms, legs, and breasts, are rounded and smooth. The surface of the bronze is slightly textured throughout, and light glints off of the warm brown patina.

Elizabeth Catlett

Reclining Female Nude, 1955

Not on View

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

overall: 20.96 × 38.1 × 14.61 cm (8 1/4 × 15 × 5 3/4 in.)
gross weight: 4.536 kg (10 lb.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr.)

Accession Number

2014.136.296

Artists / Makers

Elizabeth Catlett (sculptor) American and Mexican, 1915 - 2012

Image Use

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Provenance

Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. [1952-1997], Washington, possibly by 1987;[1] gift 1996 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] The sculpture is possibly the same work shown in a 1987 exhibition of the Tibbs collection; the dimensions given in the catalogue match those of NGA 2014.136.296, but the date given for the cast, 1978, does not.

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Tibbs, Thurlow Evans, Jr.

Exhibition History

1987: Possibly Evans-Tibbs Collection of Harlem Renaissance Artists, Euphrates Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 1987, no. 40, as Reclining Nude, same dimensions, but dated 1978.

1998: Elizabeth Catlett Sculpture: A Fifty-Year Retrospective, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase; Blaffer Gallery, Houston; Baltimore Museum of Art; California African-American Museum, Los Angeles; Spelman College Museum, Atlanta, 8 February 1998 - 12 November 1999, no. 5, repro.

2000: Elizabeth Catlett: A Life in Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000.

2004: Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004 - 7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 March - 27 July 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

2022: National Gallery of Art. "Afro-Atlantic Histories: Interview with Curator Kanitra Fletcher." Art for the Nation no. 65 (Spring 2022): 7, Fig. 6.