Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - 'Natura': Detail of Head (head of Natura)

Preview image of work. pastel, crayon, and graphite on brown wove paper, 'Natura': Detail of Head (head of Natura) 3822

1955.4.2

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'Natura': Detail of Head (head of Natura)

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Artist

Elihu Vedder (New York City, New York, 1836 - 1923, Rome, Italy)

Title

'Natura': Detail of Head (head of Natura)

Creation Date

ca. 1893

Century

late 19th century

Dimensions

21 1/4 in. x 16 1/16 in. (53.98 cm x 40.8 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

pastel, crayon, and graphite on brown wove paper

Credit Line

Gift of The American Academy of Arts and Letters

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1955.4.2

In 1893, architect Charles McKim commissioned four American artists to create murals to be installed in the Rotunda of the Museum’s Walker Art Building, which McKim was then designing. The first artist he approached was Elihu Vedder, an expatriate living in Rome. Vedder subscribed to the belief that nature was the source of all art and that emulation of the great masters, such as Raphael and Michelangelo, would lead modern artists to a greater understanding of nature. This study of the head of the mural’s central figure “Natura” is one of several dozen he created before realizing the finished work titled The Art Idea. Vedder often utilized pastels in his preparatory works.