Lot 8: Richard Saltonstall Greenough American, 1819-1904 , A bust of a woman

signed and dated: RICHARD S. GREENOUGH, SCULPSIT. ROMA, 1881. white marble

measurements note bust: 68cm., 26¾in. column: 114cm., 45in.

Private Collection, Rome

Richard Greenough was the younger brother of the neo-classical sculptor Horatio Greenough and belongs to the second generation of American expatriate artists who lived and worked in Italy. Greenough drew on the Old and New Testaments in seeking subjects for his work in marble and carved a figure of Mary Magdalen at the Tomb in 1866 (Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York). The present bust may represent the Virgin and is known in a slightly earlier version dating to 1879 (sold Christie's New York, 29th May 1987, lot 88a). Greenough died in Rome in 1904 and the present bust has remained in that city since its creation in 1881, at the time he was engaged on carving the monumental Circe of 1882 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

RELATED LITERATURE
Greenthal et al., pp.102-103; Craven, pp.269-74