GERTUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEYBust of a Boy.Bronze. 200 mm; 8 inches (height, excluding base). Incised with the artist's signature and an unidentified foundry mark, verso edge.Provenance: Private collection, Massachusetts.Whitney (1875-1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, who was born into the wealthy Vanderbilt family and married into the Whitney family. While visiting Europe in the early 1900s, Whitney discovered the burgeoning art world of Montmartre and Montparnasse in France, which encouraged her to pursue her creativity and become a sculptor.She studied at the Art Students League of New York with Hendrik Christian Andersen and James Earle Fraser. Other women students in her classes included Anna Vaughn Hyatt and Malvina Hoffman. In Paris she studied with Andrew O'Connor and also received criticism from Auguste Rodin. Her training with sculptors of public monuments influenced her later direction. Although her catalogs include numerous smaller sculptures, like the current work, she is best known today for her monumental works.