Cleveland Museum of Art

Gamin

Augusta Savage

Date

c. 1929

Medium

hand-painted plaster

Culture

America

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Augusta Savage was the most acclaimed sculptor working during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ‘30s, and Gamin is her most famous work. It was long thought that the image was a generic figure; however, recent research reveals that it depicts her nephew. The warm characterization likely arises from the close bond shared between artist and model. Although several small versions of the sculpture were produced, this life-size, hand-painted plaster is unique, and likely the oldest surviving example of the subject. A trailblazer, Savage was the first African American member of the National Association of Women Artists.

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