JACQUES LIPCHITZ
(French, 1891-1973)
The Prophet
bronze
inscribed, numbered, and with thumbprint
height: 14 3/8 in.

Provenance: By descent through a son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Literature: Hammacher, A.M., Jacques Lipchitz, New York: 1970, pl. 151.

Other Notes: From Lipchitz's series Images of Italy, 1962. Hammacher notes, " The Prophet, in the same 1962 series, probably did not receive that name until after its completion. The figure emerges only halfway into view out of the dark shadows of an enormous habit, the back of which forms the most powerful plastic moment in this statue. The surface, in the form of an S, describes an enormous swerve at this point - we might even call it a gesture, a gesture that is transformed into a heavy, clawlike hand, testifying. Here everything is motion, whereas the silhouette, or rather the series of silhouettes, is perfectly controlled."