Not currently on display at the V&A

Photograph

Artist/Maker

Photograph mounted on green card depicting 'L'Amazone', a sculpture of 1915, considered an unofficial portrait of Natalie Clifford Barney.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Photograph
Brief description
Photograph of a wood sculpture entitled 'The Amazon' by Chana Orloff
Physical description
Photograph mounted on green card depicting 'L'Amazone', a sculpture of 1915, considered an unofficial portrait of Natalie Clifford Barney.
Dimensions
  • Height of card mount height: 33cm
  • Width of card mount width: 26.6cm
Credit line
Bequeathed by Kineton Parkes in 1938
Object history
This photograph is from a collection bequeathed by William Kineton Parkes in 1938. Kineton Parkes was a novelist, art historian and librarian, who was best known for his writing on sculpture. He sent out questionnaires to sculptors in the 1920s, which are now held in the Archive of Art and Design. This photograph is one of many which were sent to Kineton Parkes by the sculptors he approached to complete the questionnaire.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic reference
The following reference is from 'Sculpting identity: Chana Orloff and her portraits' by Willi Naomi Mendelsohn, the University of Iowa, 2015: 'The hypothesis that Orloff celebrated women as artistic creators in her work is supported by the women Orloff chose to represent. Orloff’s portraits of these women became icons of specific ideologies concerning the new conception of the modern woman... Orloff demonstrated her connection to contemporaries who were similarly involved in defining a new feminism, especially in works that centered on feminine comradeship, love, and independence. Of these portraits, we can include Natalie Clifford Barney, Romaine Brooks, and many other women who we might define as “Amazons.” These amazons were strong, self-sufficient women, and also creators whose art and lives were linked in many interesting ways... Orloff’s l’Amazone from 1915 represents at the most basic iconographic level, a woman on horseback. It was also a subject that Orloff returned to again in 1955 in her work Ecuyére (fig. A26). The horse and woman in her earlier version are articulated using smooth geometric forms that flow into one another. The woman appears to wear a long riding outfit, the skirts blending into the horse’s tale. The horse stands on three legs with one of the front legs lifted delicately. The forms of the horse consist of mostly circular and oval shapes, making up its joints, its flanks, and its eyes. An interesting aspect of the sculpture is the manipulation of proportions through which the woman seems larger than the horse, to the point that if the figure were standing beside her steed, she would overwhelm it. When we look into the title of the piece, Amazone, we might simply understand the word as just one way of saying “horsewoman” or “equestrian.” But, the title could also have a double meaning. Amazone can be understood as a reference to the amazons associated with the ancient past. The Greek legend of the Amazons tells the story of a group of women outside the borders of the society of man. They are typically described as warriors, adept in archery and in horseback riding. We can already see how a woman on horseback, as in Orloff’s sculpture, might refer to an ancient Amazon. However, given the contemporary dress of the figure, we are looking at an Amazon of Orloff’s own epoch: perhaps those women like Barney who themselves looked back to these mythical women from antiquity in admiration of their qualities.'
Collection
Accession number
6688-1938

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdFebruary 11, 2015
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest