Angela Gregory
(1903-1990)La Belle Augustine, c. 1928
Cast bronzeAbout the Artist:
Angela Gregory is noted internationally for her architectural sculptures and portrait busts. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Angela Gregory’s aspirations to become an artist received a great deal of support from her educator parents. Her father taught engineering at Tulane University and her mother was a well known potter in addition to being an art teacher. Angela attended the same school where her mother taught, a private school for young women in New Orleans. By the age of fourteen she had become very skilled in clay modeling and relief casting. She attended Newcomb College in 1921, a school known for its talented young women artists, where she studied with the German sculptor Albert Reicker. At the age of 22, Angela Gregory received a scholarship to study in Paris at the Parson’s School of Fine and Applied Art, which enabled her to travel to France and Italy to develop her skills as a sculptor. After three years she returned to New Orleans to establish a studio. In 1929, when the artist was 25, she was offered a commission to produce a piece of sculpture to decorate the exterior of the Criminal Courthouse of New Orleans. She went on to produce several more commissioned monuments, including eight of the 22 famous men surrounding the exterior of the State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Discussion
About the Art:
La Belle Augustine, ca. 1928, is one of Gregory’s earliest works and was created soon after returning from her studies in France. The “unfinished” appearance of the work is demonstrated in a surface in which bumps, crevices and folds are obvious. These imperfections or traits give the bust life. The artist followed a traditional sand-cast technique often employed by French artists. Sand-casting is a method of casting metal in a mold made of firmly packed layers of damp sand around a sculpture. The sculpture is removed from the sand and leaves an exact impression for new sculptures to be made.
The subject, a young African-American woman from New Orleans, reflects the artist’s sensitive approach to her work. The head is tilted downward, has a distant stare and a quiet expression. These traits along with the soft shoulders create a portrait of a humble and thoughtful young woman. Gregory produced three casts of La Belle Augustine. This version is most likely the second or third.
