Gaston Lachaise

Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), French American sculptor, born in Paris. He went to the United States in 1906 and studied sculpture in Boston until 1912, when he moved to New York City and began the series of monumental figure pieces for which he is noted. Some of these works, more than life-size, combine weighty proportions with unusual grace; examples are Floating Woman (1927) and the bronze Standing Woman (1930-33), both in the Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut. In 1931 he executed reliefs for the RCA Building, and in 1934 for the International Building, both at Rockefeller Center, New York City. Among his many portrait busts, that of the American painter John Marin is considered his best. New York City's Museum of Modern Art honored him with a large retrospective exhibition just before his death in 1935.