About This Artwork

Constantin Brâncusi
French, born Romania, 1876–1957

White Negress II, 1928

White marble, black marble, stone, and wood
sculpture: 19 1/2 x 5 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (49.5 x 14.5 x 19. cm); black marble base: 14 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 10 in. (36.9 x 36.9 x 25.4 cm); stone base: 21 x 20 x 16 1/2 in. (53.3 x 50.8 x 42 cm); wood base: 17 3/4 x 17 x 13 3/4 in. (45.1 x 43.2 x 35 cm)
Signed: "C. Brancusi 1928"
Grant J. Pick Collection, 1966.4

© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Constantin Brancusi, October 26, 1955–January 8, 1956; traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 27–February 26, 1956.

New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part One: The Collection of Helena Rubinstein, April 13–20, 1966, pp. 22 (ill.), 23 (ill.), lot 14, as La Negresse blanche, c. 1930.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition, September 23–October 30, 1969, pp. 123 (ill.), as White Negress II; traveled to New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, November 25, 1969–February 15, 1970; Art Institute of Chicago, March 11–April 26, 1970.

Publication History

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Constantin Brancusi, 1955.

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part One: The Collection of Helena Rubinstein (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1966), pp. 22 (ill.), 23 (ill.), lot 14, as La Negresse blanche, c. 1930.

Geist, Sidney, Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968), pp. 102 (ill.), 111, 228, cat. 173, as White Negress II.

Geist, Sidney, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition exh. cat. (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1969), p. 123 (ill.), as White Negress II.

Geist, Sidney, Brancusi: The Sculpture and Drawings (Harry N. Abrams, 1975), pp. 135 (ill.), 189, cat. 189, as White Negress II.

Hulten, Pontus, Marielle Tabart, and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Brancusi: Photographie (Musée National d’Art Moderne, 1979), pp. 47 (ill.).

Varia, Radu, Brancusi (New York: Rizzoli, 1986), pp. 166 (ill.), 167 (ill.).

Bach, Friedrich Teja, Constantin Brancusi: Metamorphosen Plasticher Form (Cologne: Dumont Buchverlag, 1987), pp. 122, 130 (ill.), 488 (ill.), cat. 235, fig. 188, as Die weiße Negerin II (La Négresse blanche II).

Tarbart, 1977, cat. 47 (ill.).

Hulten, Pontus, Natalia Dumitrescu, and Alexandre Istrati, Brancusi (Flammarion, 1986), cat. 306 (ill.), cat. 167.

Andreotti, Margherita, “Brancusi’s Golden Bird: A New Species of Modern Sculpture,” Museum Studies v. 19, no. 2 (1993), p. 198, n. 1.

Klein, Ina, Constantin Brancusi: Natur, Struktur, Skulptur, Architektur Band I Text (Koln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1994), p. 230.

Klein, Ina, Constantin Brancusi: Natur, Struktur, Skulptur, Architektur Band II Dokumente (Koln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1994), p. 273 (ill.).

Miller, Sanda, Constantin Brancusi: A Survey of His Work (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp.
xviii, fig. 110 (ill.).

Rowell, Margit, Friedrich Teja Bach, and Ann Temkin, Constantin Brancusi: 1876–1957 exh. cat. (Gallimard : Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995), p. 262, fig. 1, as La Négresse blanche.

Giedion-Welcker, Carola, Brancusi als Fotograf: Ein Bildhauer fotografiert sein Werk (Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1997), pp. 123 (ill.), 124, 125, as La Négresse blanche II.

Tabart, Marielle, Les carnets de l'atelier Brancusi, La série et l'œuvre unique: L’Oiseau dans l’espace (Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2001), p. 87 (ill.), fig. 53, as La Négresse blanche II.

Tabart, Marielle, Les carnets de l'atelier Brancusi, La série et l'œuvre unique: Le portrait? (Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2002), pp. 101, 103 (ill), cat. 138as La Négresse blanche II.

Varia, Radu, C. Brancusi photographe exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Hopkins Custot, 2003), pp. 54, 55 (ill.), as La Négresse blanche II.

Ownership History

Helena Rubinstein (died 1965), New York and Paris, probably acquired directly from the artist, by 1933–1965 [memo of July 28, 1966 in curatorial file and Geist 1983]; by descent to the Estate of Helena Rubinstein, 1965–1966; purchased from Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York sale, April 20, 1966, lot 14, by Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, April 20, 1966–April 22, 1966 [memo of April 22, 1966 in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1966.