Designer: Carl Lewis Pappe (1900 – 1998)

Item: Bronze Female Bronze Sculpture

Manufactured by: Carl Pappe

Country of origin: United States or Mexico

Year made: 1940s

Materials: Bronze mounted to walnut base

Dimensions: 12 ½” x 8 ¼” x 5"

Condition: Excellent

Description:  This is one of the finest Pappe bronzes we have ever seen.  This work is highly stylized and reminiscent of the work of Elie Nadelman, as well as other important modernists.  This is an opportunity to own a work that competes with some of the best modernist American portraiture sculpture, at a fraction of the price.  Most of the bronze works by Pappe are three-dimensional tabletop works of animals or more realistic female heads.  We have never seen one like this by him and we believe it to be a unique casting.  Signed at bottom on verso as shown.

Born in Hungary in 1900, Pappe showed an early interest and talent in drawing. While in his early teens, he apprenticed with a Hungarian muralist working in Cleveland. From 1921 to 1925 he attended the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art).  From 1925 to 1926 he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied under Hugh Breckenridge and Daniel Garber.

Pappe visited Mexico City in 1934 and lived there for four years and then moved to Taxco with his future wife the renowned Mexican jeweler and silversmith Bernice Goodspeed where they opened a gallery.  He lived much of the remainder of his life in Taxco.  Living in Mexico he became acquainted with and developed friendships with many important artists such as Frida Kahlo, Isamu Noguchi, Carlos Merida, Juan O'Gorman and Ruffino Tamayo and he apprenticed with muralist Jose Orozco.

Pappe's work has been shown in many museums and galleries internationally, and can be found in public and private collections such as the Dallas Art Museum and the U.S. Library of Congress.  This is the second of Pappe's bronze works we have on offer.