Bronze
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andrew-oconnor-2189" aria-label="More by Andrew O’Connor" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andrew O’Connor</a>
Golden Head
Purchased 1934
<p>O'Connor was an American sculptor who specialised in funerary and public monuments, and portrait busts. He lived in Paris from 1903 to 1914 where he came under the influence of Rodin and Dalou. This head is an idealised portrait of O'Connor's second wife Jessie, who was the model for many of his sculptures. A version of this head crowns the funerary figure in the monument to General Thomas in Sleep Hollow cemetery, near Tarrytown, New York. This funerary figure is a seated female shown in an attitude of mourning and reflection.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
The Golden Head
object: 359 × 249 × 292 mm
Purchased 1934
<p>O'Connor was an American <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a> who specialised in funerary and public monuments, and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> busts. He lived in Paris from 1903 to 1914 where he came under the influence of Rodin and Dalou. This head is an idealised portrait of O'Connor's second wife Jessie, who was the model for many of his sculptures. A version of this head crowns the funerary figure in the monument to General Thomas in Sleep Hollow cemetery, near Tarrytown, New York. This funerary figure is a seated female shown in an attitude of mourning and reflection.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
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<p><b>Andrew O'Connor</b><span> 1874-1941 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/oconnor-the-golden-head-n04730" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04730</span></a> </span><b>The Golden Head</b><span> 1905 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'THIS | RECUEILLEMENT | WAS MADE BY O'CONNOR | 1905' l. side</span>
<br/><span>Bronze, 14 1/8 x 11 x 11 1/2 (36 x 28 x 29) on stone base; height including base 18 5/8 (47.3)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the artist (Grant-in-Aid 'T' Fund) 1934</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
William Walton, 'Andrew O'Connor, Sculptor' in </span><i>Scribner's Magazine</i><span>, XLV, 1909, p.640; Hélène Desmaroux, </span><i>L'Oeuvre du Sculpteur O'Connor</i><span> (Paris 1927), pp.34, 45, 78-9, 95, repr. p.44 as 'Recueillement' 1903; Edouard-Joseph, </span><i>Dictionnaire Biographique des Artistes Contemporains 1910-30</i><span> (Paris 1934), Vol.3, pp.85-6; Homan Potterton in exh. catalogue </span><i>Andrew O'Connor 1874-1941</i><span>, Trinity College, Dublin, September 1974, pp.11, 17-18, 47, repr. p.50</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Studio</i><span>, CXIV, 1937, p.80 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>A version of the head which crowns the figure in the monument to General Thomas in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, near Tarrytown, New York. This monument, which was made in 1903-5, depicts a seated female figure ('Recueillement') in an attitude of mourning and reflection, with her hands on her knees. According to Desmaroux, the wealthy patron who commissioned the monument wished O'Connor to substitute a head that was less sombre, but the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a> refused to make any concession. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The head was an idealised <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of the artist's second wife Jessie, who was the model for numerous sculptures, both female and male. Another <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a>, with a different base, is in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin under the title 'The Golden Mask', while a preliminary study for the head in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"><span>plaster</span></a> 19cm high, known as 'La Penseuse' (The Thinker), still belongs to the O'Connor family. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.566-7, reproduced p.566</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
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