Fancy
Maker
John Gregory
(American, 1879 - 1958)
Collections
ClassificationsSCULPTURE
Date1923-1925
Mediumglazed terra cotta mask on a marble base
Dimensions9 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (22.9 x 14 x 8.9 cm.)
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Janis Conner and Joel Rosenkranz
Label TextLike many sculptors who worked at the American Academy in Rome, Gregory combined classical subjects with Modernist aesthetics; he called his style the "Playful Classic." In addition to his interest in Greek, Egyptian, and West Asian forms, Gregory was inspired by the Symbolist fascination with enigmatic female faces, like that of Fancy. Gregory's interest in adding color to his work, as shown in the terracotta version of Fancy on the right, stemmed from his study of ancient Greek sculpture, which was often multicolored. He planned to produce glazed terracotta sculptures for the east pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but the project lost its funding in the Great Depression of the 1930s and was not completed. Gregory created the relief sculptures for The Huntington's Mausoleum, completed in 1929.
Status
On viewObject number2004.25
