American Painting and Sculpture

DESIGNED BY ELIHU VEDDER
(American, 1836-1923)
MODELED BY GEORGE KECK
(American, 1875-1951)

The Boy, 1902
Bronze
Gift of Mrs. Hattie Bishop Speed 1929.29.

Elihu Vedder was an eccentric and extremely versatile artist who worked in a variety of media. A painter, illustrator, writer, and decorative artist, Vedder is credited with creating some of the earliest American Art Nouveau works. Although he is well known for his stylized paintings of mythological figures and Italian landscapes, several of which are in the Speed’s collection, he also designed small sculptural forms such as doorknockers and bell-pulls. His only large-scale sculptural work was The Boy, a fountain figure designed by Vedder and modeled by George Keck, Vedder’s pupil, friend, and colleague. This sculpture of a slender nude boy gracefully balances upon a classically rendered shell—which incorporates the waterspout—and supports a large lobed basin upon his head. In 1902, The Boy was cast in bronze in a series of at least four, one of which was housed at Laurelton Hall, the Oyster Bay, Long Island, home of famed decorative artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). Hattie Bishop Speed, the Speed Art Museum’s benefactor, was a friend of Vedder’s and purchased this version directly from his daughter.