Portrait of a Baby

Portrait of a Baby is a small, tabletop sculpture made from reddish-orange terracotta, a type of clay that has been molded and fired in a kiln. Its depiction of an infant’s head nestled on a pillow conveys a softness and care that belies the hard materiality of the terracotta. The child is alert, with large, active eyes gazing upward. Savage paid close attention to the details of the baby’s hair, full cheeks and mouth, and its tiny ears tucked into the support of the pillow. Such awareness signals the empathy and sense of dignity characterizing her approach to all her portrait-bust works, especially those of children.

This tender portrait was made later in Savage’s career, at a time when she was teaching art and living in Saugerties, New York, where she moved in 1945 after living and working in New York City. While Savage more often worked in plaster or bronze, her use of terracotta in Portrait of a Baby recalls her early years as a child in Green Cove Springs, Florida, where she would make small sculptures out of the natural red clay. She recalled that “when my brothers and sisters were making mud pies, I would make ducks and chickens with the mud.”

As a professional sculptor in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, Savage became known for her portrait busts of influential figures like W.E.B. DuBois (1868–1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), as well as her considerate, empathetic portraits of children, including Portrait of a Baby and Gamin (TF TCA2023.2). She also worked as an arts educator, opening the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in 1932, where she taught artists including Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence (1913–2005), and Norman Lewis (1909–1979). In 1934 she became the director of the Harlem Community Art Center, a Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project that served as a model for similar centers around the United States during the Great Depression.

African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, New York (organizer). Venue: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, New York, February 1—April 6, 1996. [exh. cat.]

Woman's Work: A Century of Achievement in American Art, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ohio (organizer). Venue: The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ohio, June 2—August 25, 1996. [exh. cat.]

Queen’s Artists—Highlights of the 20th Century, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York (organizer). Venue: Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York, March 25—July 6, 1997.

The Enduring Figure, 1890s—1970s: Sixteen Sculptors from the National Association of Women Artists, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (organizer). Venue: The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, December 12, 1999—March 12, 2000. [exh. cat.]

African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, Texas (organizer). Venue: Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, Texas, April 20—June 1, 2001. [exh. cat.]

Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida (organizer). Venues: Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida, October 12, 2018—April 28, 2019; New-York Historical Society, New York, New York, May 3—July 28, 2019; Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, August 24—December 8, 2019; Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, January 19—March 22, 2020. [exh. cat.]

Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (organizer). Venue: Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, February 8—June 30, 2023. [exh. cat.]

  

African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, New York (organizer). Venue: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, New York, February 1 — April 6, 1996. Ill. p. 34.

Clark, Garth and Cindi Strauss, eds. Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection New Haven: Yale University Press in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2012. Ill. p. 249.

Hayes, Jeffreen M. Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, London, United Kingdom: GILES, an imprint of D Giles Ltd, 2018. Text p. 93, 149; ill. p. 92 (color).

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Stamberg, Susan. “Sculptor Augusta Savage Said Her Legacy Was The Work Of Her Students,” NPR, Washington, DC (July 15, 2019).

Stamberg, Susan. “Sculptor Augusta Savage Said Her Legacy Was The Work Of Her Students,” KUNC-Community Radio for Northern Colorado (July 15, 2019).

Richman-Abdou, Kelly. “How Augusta Savage, a Black Art Teacher and Sculptor, Helped Shape the Harlem Renaissance,” My Modern Met (July 18, 2020).