Isoult with Fawn Neoclassical Marble Statue After Edward McCartan

Our client's white marble statue of Isoult with fawn after the original cast by Edward Francis McCartan (1879-1947) dates from the second quarter of the twentieth century. 58 inches tall. Apparently unsigned. Relatively clean surfaces for its age, with some scuffs, stains and surface dirt. Numerous chips from the bottom and top edges of the base, plus small chip loss to a finger on one hand.

The original bronze, entitled Isoult, was cast in 1926 and is on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Isoult (alternatively Iseult and Isolde) is the name of multiple characters comes from the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent of which is Isoult of Ireland, the wife of Mark of Cornwall and the lover of Tristan. Her mother, the queen of Ireland, is also named Isoult. The third is Isoult of the White Hands, the daughter of Hoel of Brittany and the sister of Kahedin.

Born in Albany, New York, McCartan studied at the Pratt Institute with Herbert Adams. He also studied at the Art Students League of New York with George Grey Barnard and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, and then in Paris for three years under Jean Antoine Injalbert before returning to the U.S. in 1910.

In 1914, he became Director of the sculpture department of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City. While there, Eleanor Mary Mellon was among his students.

He sculpted in marble and cast works in bronze in both the neoclassical and Art Deco styles. He was posthumously honored by the National Sculpture Society and honored with a number of public commissions across the U.S.

His artworks can be found in numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina, widely recognized as exhibiting the largest and finest collection of American figurative sculpture.