Artwork Details
- Title
- The Young Acrobat
- Artist
- Caster
- E. Gruet Jeune
- Founder
- E. Gruet Jeune
- Date
- modeled ca. 1891
- Location
- Dimensions
- 33 5⁄8 x 12 x 12 in. (85.4 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Dr. Wayne H. Decker
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- bronze
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Figure — fragment — arm
- Figure male — child — nude
- Object Number
- 1991.62
Artwork Description
Douglas Tilden exhibited The Young Acrobat at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The work shows a chubby, nude baby poised unsteadily in the palm of a man's outstretched arm. The rolled-up sleeve may symbolize the working man who holds up to the world the hope and promise of the future. The work reveals Tilden's characteristic choice of subject matter that shows a measured balance between delicacy and force. Tilden believed that sculpture should be beautiful from all sides; the attention to musculature and fleshy detail on all surfaces of this work suggests that he intended it to be seen in the round.