ENID YANDELL (American, 1870-1934). NARCISSUS, signed, with "Roman Bronze Works N.Y." foundry mark. Bronze with brown patina - Height: 22 in. Estimate $20,000-25,000
Enid Yandell was a prominent American sculptor at the turn of the twentieth century. A student of Frederick MacMonnies and Auguste Rodin, she exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon and, in 1898, was the first woman to join the National Sculpture Society. Yandell executed several important commissions in her lifetime, among them a monumental sculpture of Daniel Boone (Louisville, KY) and a 25-foot statue of the goddess, Athena (now destroyed). One of the highlights of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, it was at the time the largest figure ever designed by a woman. Exhibiting at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show in New York City, Yandell was renowned for the breadth of her output, which includes fountains, portraits, and public memorials. Settling eventually in Edgartown, MA, she lived and taught sculpture on Martha's Vineyard, ultimately establishing the Branstock School of Art in 1908.
EXHIBITED: National Academy of Design, New York, 1912 (#319)
PROVENANCE: Estate of Mary Goodrich, York, ME, circa 1969 Breckinridge-Patterson Family, purchaser of Goodrich estate, York, ME Acquired by the present owner from the above
Mary Goodrich was the widow of B. F. Goodrich, renowned physician and rubber magnate. This work, the maquette for which was sold at C. G. Sloan & Company in 1991, was likely commissioned as a monumental garden sculpture for the Goodrich York, ME, estate. Built in 1905 and boasting a 31-room Colonial Revival mansion, this sumptuous 42-acre property is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
