TitleMask of Maude Adams
Artist
Rudulph Evans
(American, 1878 - 1960)
Date[1906]
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 9 × 10 in.
Other (Sculpture): 10 × 9 × 9 1/4 in.
Other (Base): 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 × 7 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, January 21, 1930
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number28-S
Label TextMaude Adams was born in Salt Lake City in 1872. While still a child, she appeared on the stage there and in San Francisco. She was taken East in the 1880s by her mother, who was also an actress, and became well known for her roles in Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Paymaster. Her greatest fame came, however, from her performances in a number of plays by James M. Barrie, especially, beginning in 1905, in the title role of Peter Pan, which Barrie had written for her. Adams continued to be active in the theater for some time, although she never escaped being identified with the eternally youthful sprite. She spent the latter years of her career teaching at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, and died in 1953.Adams initially sat for Evans in New York in 1902, when she was at the height of her career. He gave the actress the bust that resulted. For some unknown reason, she named that piece Betsy; it is now unlocated. Probably early in 1906, only months after Adams first performed as Peter Pan, Evans modeled a second, different bust of her. The Academy's piece is an example of this later image. It is unclear how the two versions may have been formally related. Beatrice Proske and others have linked the impressionistic technique of the 1906 bust to the influence of Auguste Rodin. Evidence of gilding remains in the cavity of the head, suggesting that the entire work was once colored gold.
According to Tescia Ann Yonkers, Adams purchased two replicas of the second version from Evans, one in plaster and one in bronze. Evans gave another plaster cast (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York) to his personal physician, Dr. Theodore J. Edlich, Jr. A cast of the piece was evidently in a private collection in Onteora, New York, according to a list of the sculptor's works that was probably published in the 1930s. This source also dates the work to 1906. In addition to the example in the collection of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, two additional plaster casts and one marble version are presently located-both in private hands. A bronze cast is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
