About This Artwork

Constantin Brâncusi
French, born Romania, 1876–1957

Leda, c. 1920

Marble on concrete base
Marble: 22 x 26 x 8 1/2 in.; Circular base: 26 x 48 in. (diameter)
none
Bequest of Katherine S. Dreier, 1953.195

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

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Brooklyn Museum, An International Exhibition of Modern Art Assembled by the Société Anonyme, November 19, 1926–January 1, 1927, n.p., cat. 164.

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Cubism and Abstract Art, April 1936, pp. 108 (ill.), 205, fig. 108, cat. 19.
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1937.

New Haven, Conn., Yale University Art Gallery, 1946, cat. 8.

New Haven, Conn., Yale University Art Gallery, Memorial Exhibition, December 15, 1952–February 1, 1953, cat. 4.

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.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition, September 23–October 30, 1969, p. 101 (ill.); traveled to New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, November 25, 1969–February 15, 1970; Chicago, Art Institute, March 11–April 26, 1970.

Publication History

Pound, Ezra, The Little Review 8 (Autumn 1921), pl. 14 (ill.).

M. M., “Constantin Brancusi: A Summary of Many Conversations,” The Arts (July, 1923), p. 14 (ill.).

Brancusi, Constantin, “Art Supplement: Five Drawings, Forty-One Reproductions,” This Quarter 1, no. 1 (1925), n.p. (ill).

Brooklyn Museum, Catalogue of An International Exhibition of Modern Art Assembled by the Société Anonyme exh. cat. (Brooklyn Museum , 1926), n.p., cat. 164.

Dreier, Katherine S., Modern Art (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1926), p. 68 (ill.).

Cahiers d’Etoile 1929, (ill.).

Fierens, 1933, pl. 23.

Museum of Modern Art, Cubism and Abstract Art exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936), pp. 108 (ill.), 205, fig. 108, cat. 19.

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1937.

Yale University Art Gallery, 1946, cat. 8.

Yale University Art Gallery, Memorial Exhibition, December 15, 1952–February 1, 1953, cat. 4.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Constantin Brancusi, 1955.

Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly XLVII, no. 4 (November 15, 1953–January 31, 1954), p. 64 (ill.).

Lewis, David, Constantin Brancusi (new York: George Wittenborn Inc.,1957), p. 7, pl. 37.

Zervos, Christian, Constantin Brancusi: sculptures, peintures, fresques, dessins (Editions Cahiers d’art, 1957), p. 76 (ill.).

Gideion-Welcker, Carola, Constantin Brancusi (Basel: Benno Schwabe and Co., 1958), pp. 112 (ill.), 113 (ill.), 179 (ill.), 235, plates 50, 51, 102, as Leda, 1923
Jianou, Ionel, Brancusi (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1963),pp. 107, n.p. (ill.), as Leda (I), 1924.

Morris, Form-Classes (December 1966), p. 75, figs. 47, and 49.

Geist, Sidney, Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968), pp. 76–7 (ill.), 225, cat. 131.

Geist, Sidney, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition exh. cat. (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1969), cat. 101.

Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 64, no. 1 (January, 1970), p. (ill.).

Geist, Sidney, Brancusi: The Sculpture and Drawings (Harry N. Abrams, 1975), pp. 95 (ill.), 184, cat. 132.

Kunsthaus Zurich, Constantin Brancusi: Der Künstler als Fotograf seiner Skulptur, Eine Auswahl 1902–1943 exh. cat. (Kunsthaus Zurich, 1976), pp. 48, 78 (ill).

Stanculescu, Nina, Carte de Inina Pentru Brâncusi (Bucharest: Editura Albatros, 1976), n.p. (ill.).

Tabart, Marielle, and Isabelle Monod Fontaine, Brancusi photographe (Musée national d'art moderne, 1977), pp. 12, 72 (ill.), 122.

Hulten, Pontus, Marielle Tabart, and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Brancusi: Photographie (Musée National d’Art Moderne, 1979), pp. 72 (ill.), 122, cat. 72, as Léda.

Grigorescu, Dan, Brancusi (Bucharest: Editura Meridiane, 1980), n.p., fig. 69 (ill.).

Stanculescu, Nina, Brâncusi (Bucharest: Editura Albatros, 1981), n.p. (ill.), as Leda, 1924.

Deac, Mircea, Brancusi: surse arhetipale (Editura Junimea Iasi, 1982), n.p. (ill).

Bohan, Ruth L., The Société Anonyme’s Brooklyn Exhibition: Katherine Dreier and Modernism in America (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982), pp. 54, 57, 65, 135, fig. 16 (ill.).

Jianu, Ionel, Constantin Brancusi: Vita si opera (Bucharest: Editura stiintifica si enciclopedica, 1983), n.p. (ill.), figs. 7, 42.

Herbert, Robert L., Eleanor S. Apter, and Elise K. Kenney, The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 25 (ill.), 83, 768 (ill.), 770.

Varia, Radu, Brancusi (New York: Rizzoli, 1986), pp. 118 (ill.), 119, 204 (ill.), 205.

Hulten, Pontus, Natalia Dumitrescu, and Alexandre Istrati, Brancusi (Flammarion, 1986), pp. 136 (ill.), 296, cat. 116.

Bach, Friedrich Teja, Constantin Brancusi: Metamorphosen Plasticher Form (Cologne: Dumont Buchverlag, 1987), pp. 185 (ill.), 460 (ill.), figs. 182, 277.

Mocioi, Ion, Estetica Operei Lui Constantin Brancusi (Craiova: Scrisul Romanesc, 1987), p. 108 (ill.), fig. 47 (S. 261).

Shanes, Eric, Modern Masters Series: Constantin Brancusi (Abbeville Press, 1989), pp. 76 (ill.), 77-78, fig. 86.

Bach, Friedrich Teja, Brancusi: Photo reflexion exh. cat. (Paris: Didier Imbert Fine Art, 1991), pp. 88 (ill.), 120 (ill.), 150–151.

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

Sawelson-Gorse, Naomi, “The Art Institute of Chicago and the Arensberg Collection,” Museum Studies 19, no. 1 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), pp. 94, 95 (ill.), fig. 15.

Velescu, Cristian-Robert, Brancusi Initiatul (Bucharest: Editis, 1993), n.p. (ill.).

Klein, Ina, Constantin Brancusi: Natur, Struktur, Skulptur, Architektur Band I Text (Koln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1994), p. 230, cat. 36.

Klein, Ina, Constantin Brancusi: Natur, Struktur, Skulptur, Architektur Band II Dokumente (Koln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1994), p. 273 (ill.), cat. 36.

Brown, Elizabeth A., Constantin Brancusi photographe (Paris: Editions Assouline, 1995), pp. 76 (ill.), 78 (ill.).

Penders, Anne-Françoise, Brancusi, la photographie ou l’atelier comme “groupe mobile” (Brussels: La Lettre volée, 1995), pp. 26–7 (ill), fig. 7.

Rowell, Margit, Friedrich Teja Bach, and Ann Temkin, Constantin Brancusi: 1876–1957 exh. cat. (Gallimard : Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995), pp. 238 (ill.), 356 (ill.).

Giedion-Welcker, Carola, Brancusi als Fotograf: Ein Bildhauer fotografiert sein Werk (Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1997), pp. 34 (ill.), 37 (ill.), 118.

Tabart, Marielle, Carnets de l'atelier Brancusi, Série et l'œuvre unique: Leda (Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 1998), pp. 11 (ill.), 12 (ill.), 23 (ill.), 37 (ill.), 39 (ill.), 41 (ill.), 56, 57 (ill.), 58, 59 (ill.), 68, 69 (ill.), 70, cats. 1–7, 38–43, fig. 3.

Tabart, Marielle, Carnets de l'atelier Brancusi, Série et l'œuvre unique: L’Oiseau dans l’espace (Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2001), p. 82 (ill.), cat. 26.

Varia, Radu, C. Brancusi photographe exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Hopkins Custot, 2003), pp. 38, 39 (ill.), 58, 59 (ill.).

Ownership History

Katherine S. Dreier (died 1952), Milford, Conn., probably acquired directly from the artist, by 1926–1952 [Brooklyn 1926 and Varia 2003]; by descent to the estate of Katherine S. Dreier, 1952; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1953.