Object Type: Sculpture

Medium and Support: bronze on Slate Base

Credit Line: Florence Griswold Museum; Given in memory of Grace White Ellsworth by her children.

Accession Number: 2015.1.2

This small bronze sculpture was modeled and produced during a flourishing of Frishmuth’s sculpture in the early 1920s. It would become one of her most lucrative and beloved pieces over the 45 years it remained in active production.

Born in Philadelphia, Frishmuth spent much of her youth with her mother and sisters in Europe following the divorce of her parents. She studied briefly at the Academie Rodin in Paris, and moved to New York in 1904 where she worked as a studio assistant before establishing her own atelier in a converted stable in Sniffen Court.

The Vine began as a demonstration for students in 1921. The model for this sculpture was Renee Wilde, a ballerina with the Fokine Ballet who filled in when the model scheduled for that day fell ill. As she recalled, “I had never posed before, I did not know that the post had to be held for 25 minutes. I took the pose, later to be known as the Vine simply because it was a position I often took in my dancing. As I held it, I kept bending further and further back.” The resulting sculpture indicates the decorative exuberance, lyrical sensibility, and playful eroticism of Frishmuth’s female figures in the 1920s.

Over a long period of production from 1921-1966, 396 casts of this sculpture were produced. Gorham Company Founders of Providence produced 317, Roman Bronze Works of New York 46, and 32 remain unspecified. This version was produced by Gorham, who also retailed the sculpture through their New York showroom on 5th Avenue at 36th Street. Gorham charged the artist $45 to cast each, and retailed the sculpture for $200.

Based on the initial success of this small sculpture at market, Frishmuth commissioned a limited run of 5 larger-than-life sized versions in 1923.