PAUL HOWARD MANSHIP (1885-1966) AND BARRY FAULKNER (1881-1966) Important Tester Panelcirca 1917for the Manship's Home at 42 Washington Mews, New York, paint and gold leaf on a white ground, laid on canvas, the rectangular canvas composed of six...

PAUL HOWARD MANSHIP (1885-1966) AND BARRY FAULKNER (1881-1966)
Important Tester Panelcirca 1917for the Manship's Home at 42 Washington Mews, New York, paint and gold leaf on a white ground, laid on canvas, the rectangular canvas composed of six painted reserves within gilt borders arranged as four large panels at the corners and two smaller panels aligned between them, all surrounded by elaborate gilt scrolling borders with zodiac symbols, medallions emblematic of virtues, and at the center two roundel portraits of Paul and Isabel and a standing portrait of their daughter Pauline as a putto, signed in initials 'B.F' lower left and 'P.M.' lower rightheight 73 1/2in (186cm); width 50 5/8in (127.5cm)

ProvenanceThe Paul Manship EstatePrivate Massachusetts Collection, acquired directly from the aboveLiteratureBob Mueller, 'Paul Manship and Barry Faulkner: Eternal Friendship Forged in the Eternal City' (pp. 12-28 of "Coming Home! A Retrospective Exhibit of Parrish, Manship, Faulkner and Zorach", exhibition catalogue, Cornish Colony Museum, Windsor, Vt, 2006)Thayer Tolles, 'Daniel Chester French, Paul Manship, and the John Pierpont Morgan Memorial for the Metropolitan Museum', Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 41 (2006)John Manship, 'Paul Manship', Abbeville, NY, 1989 (illustrated as full-page plate)An exceptional and unique example of Paul Manship design, for his own family and living space, created at a time when Manship was finalising his designs for the J.P. Morgan Memorial at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (fig. 1). Paul Manship married his wife Isabel on New Year's Day 1913 and their first daughter, Pauline, was born at the end of that year. The Manships moved into 42 Washington Mews in 1915, shortly after its renovation into artist's studios andresidences. Manship's studio was at number 44.At that time Washington Mews was a thriving creative and artistic community, and the Manships hosted parties and entertained Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Charlie Chaplin, Gaston Lachaise and others. The desire for Manship to incorporate his art into his living space is shown in the few extant pieces of Manship designed furniture, including an oak liquor cabinet from 1918 designed by Manship, made by Luigi D'Olivio, and carved by Gaston Lachaise, now in the collection of Two Red Roses, St Petersburg, FL; as well as the bronze balcony rails, painted interior elements, etc., installed in his later home on 319 E 72nd St, New York (illustrated in Town & Country, vol. 81, 1927).The tester panel is arranged (perhaps intentionally) in a fashion similar to a panelled door. Designed to be installed as a ceiling of an existing four-post or tester bed, it is composed of six rectangular paintings, the four larger ones depicting the Four Seasons, and the two smaller central paintings depicting Dawn and Night, all designed by Manship and painted by Faulkner. The two central paintings, one depicting a nude Olympian male forcefully pushing away the clouds to reveal the sun, and the other a beautiful female shrouded by night in a starry sky, prefigure "Day" and "Evening", two of the four sculptures Manship created for the 1939 New York World's Fair (fig. 2). The finely executed gilded borders by Manship include numerous zodiac symbols, including his much-loved animals - a crab, bull, scorpion, fish, lion and others; as well as the mythological and archaic figures for which Manship is also so well known, and numerous gilded roundels indicating Roman virtues.At the time of the panel's creation, Manship was finalising his designs for the Morgan Memorial that was installed in 1920 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The arrangement of figural scenes within ornate scrolling borders is strikingly similar in composition to the memorial, and it may be that in creating this panel scheme Manship was exploring thoughts of his own legacy and family, as he was carving those figural attributes and virtues so symbolic of the accomplishments of the great benefactor Morgan.Manship first met Faulkner in 1909 when they were both studying at the American Academy in Rome. The friendship and career collaboration between them was close and long-lasting. Faulkner travelled with the Manships during trips to Italy in 1914, curtailed by the onset of the Great War, and he later travelled with Paul to France and then Greece and the Near East. Later Faulkner lived in a studio apartment above the Manships on 72nd Street. They worked on several common projects throughout their careers, including the memorial to fallen Academy fellows Harry Thrasher and Walter Ward at the American Academy in Rome, the fresco for which is considered some of Faulkner's finest work. Faulkner's execution of Manship's designs for such an intimate space in Manship's home further reveals the strength and closeness of their relationship, as well as the practical necessity, owing to Manship's color blindness, of Manship using a painter to execute these scenes.The sale of the present panel provides an opportunity to acquire an important tangible insight into the creative practice, artistic vision and personal life of one of America's most famous 20th century sculptors.