Boy and Eel [Photograph]
Name/Title
Boy and Eel [Photograph]Description
Boy and Eel sculptor by Waldine Tauch, being sold by Gorham Company, 5th Avenue, New York City.Context
Waldine Tauch, sculptor, was born on January 28, 1892, in Schulenberg, Texas. In 1910, just two weeks shy of graduating from high school, she left home to study with Coppini in San Antonio. When funds for her education were exhausted, Coppini taught her gratis and raised her as a foster daughter in his home. Under the influence of Coppini, a staunch advocate of classical sculpture, Tauch developed a naturalistic style and condemned abstract art as "an irritation to the eye and an insult to the mind." From 1922 to 1934, Tauch lived in New York City, where she began producing small genre figures that were reproduced for the mass market by the Gorham Company. Small statuettes such as Surfboard (ca. 1924), Gulf Breeze (1929), and Boy and Eel (1924), all of which celebrated the nude figure, revealed a more romantic, personal vision than the sober commemorative works that occupied most of her time. Examples of her work may be found in many public collections, among them the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon; the MacArthur Memorial Foundation, Norfolk, Virginia; the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Witte Museum, San Antonio.Category
Texas Art Gallery
Becoming Texas, Bullock Museum