Herbert Haseltine (1877-1962)
Percheron Mare: Messaline and Foal
parcel-gilt bronze with verdigris patina
9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm.) high, on a 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm.) high black marble base
Modeled circa 1922-24.
Footnotes:
Provenance
William W. and Jean W. Fetner, Dallas, acquired by 1992.
By descent from the above to the present owner, son of the above, 2005.

Literature
Knoedler's Gallery, Herbert Haseltine: An Exhibition of Sculpture of British Champion Animals, exhibition catalogue, London, 1925, p. 16, no. 5, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare: Messaline and Percheron Mare (and Foal): Messaline)
Knoedler's Gallery, Herbert Haseltine: Exhibition of Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, London, 1930, n.p., no. 4, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare (and Foal): Messaline)
Herbert Haseltine to Preston Remington, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 1, 1933, Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, another example listed.
Field Museum of Natural History, Herbert Haseltine: Exhibition of Sculpture of British Champion Animals, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, 1934, n.p., nos. 5 and 6, another example illustrated.
H. Devree, 'Galleries,' The New York Times, January 21, 1934, vol. LXXXIII, no. 27,756, sec. 10, p. 12X, another example illustrated.
H. Haseltine, J.J. Cunningham, ed., American Sculptors Series: No. 7, Herbert Haseltine, New York, 1948, pp. 8, 39, another example illustrated.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Herbert Haseltine: Exhibition of Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore, 1951, p. 11, no. 21, another example listed. (as Percheron Mare (and Foal))
A.T. Gardner, 'Sculpture Survey, 1872-1951,' The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. X, no. 4, December 1951, p. 140, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare and Foal)
A.T. Gardner, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1965, p. 134-135, 190, no. 26.160.2, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare and Foal: Messaline)
Graham Gallery, Herbert Haseltine, 1877-1962: An Exhibition of Sculpture Presented as a Benefit for the National Museum of Racing, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., exhibition catalogue, New York, 1974, n.p., no. 26. (as Percheron Mare and Foal)
The Queen's Museum, The Artist's Menagerie: Five Millenia of Animals in Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1974, no. 124, another example listed.
Whitney Museum of American Art, 200 Years of American Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1976, pp. 140-41, fig. 199, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare and Foal)
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 48, 52, another example listed.
M. Cormack, Champion Animals: Sculptures by Herbert Haseltine, Richmond, Virginia, 1996, pp. 6, 36-41, another example illustrated. (as Percheron Mare: Messaline and Her Foal)
T. Tolles, ed., D.J. Hassler, J.M. Marter, T. Tolles, J.L. Thompson, American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vollume II. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885, vol. 2, New York, 2001, pp. 610, 612-13, 785, 787, no. 281, another example illustrated.
Sladmore, The Horse: A Sculptural Icon, exhibition catalogue, London, 2021, pp. 28-29, no. 13, another example illustrated.

Other examples of Herbert Haseltine's Percheron Mare: Messaline and Foal can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, National Sporting Library & Museum, Middleburg, Virginia, Museum of Fine Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Yale Center For British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Herbert Haseltine's Percheron Mare: Messaline and Foal is one of the artist's most striking examples produced from his British Champion Animals series and is a superb demonstration of Haseltine's abilities as an equine modeler. In 1921, after the successful reception of his sculpture Field Marshal V of King George V's prized shire stallion, Haseltine began work on his British Champion Animals series. The series is his most celebrated and numbers 26 subjects, which include prizewinning bulls, sheep, cattle, pigs, and horses, including the Percheron mare Messaline and her foal. For the series, Haseltine spent his days traveling to farms throughout the British Isles and attended Royal Agricultural Shows, sculpting small models in Plasticine. It was during these travels that Haseltine became acquainted with Messaline and her foal firsthand. Messaline, and the stallion Rhum, which Haseltine also sculpted, were owned by Mrs. Robert Emmet of Moreton Morrell in Warwicksire, England. Messaline was bred and foaled in France in 1912 by the sire Douvreur-ex-Couvreur and dam Paquerett; she accumulated first place prizes at British agricultural shows between 1917 and 1922, including first and champion at the Show of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1921 and 1922. (Knoedler's Gallery, Herbert Haseltine: Exhibition of Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, London, 1930, n.p., no. 4)

Percheron Mare: Messaline and Foal along with its companion Percheron Stallion: Rhum, depict the anatomical likeness of the Percheron French breed of heavy horses in painstaking detail and exhibit the influence Egyptian art had on Haseltine during this period of his artistic career. In contrast to his earlier works, the sculptures he produced for the series revealed a shift from realistic depictions toward a more simplified and stylized treatment of form inspired by his studies of ancient sculpture at the insistence of his friend Jo Davidson. Haseltine remarked later in life, 'I used to pay frequent visits to the Louvre to study the great Egyptian School, the Assyrian bas-reliefs, the early Greek sculptures, and masterpieces of Chinese art. When in London, I spent many hours at the British Museum, where I steeped myself in the masterpieces of these same great schools...the masterpieces of the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Chinese schools were exhilarating and stimulating.' (as quoted in M. Cormack, Champion Animals: Sculptures by Herbert Haseltine, Richmond, Virginia, 1996, p. 7)

Haseltine gives both Messaline and her foal a rigid stance, emphasizing frontality and the contours of the sculpture reflective of the techniques found in Egyptian art. He uses minimal incised lines to construct and give detail to Messalines' mane and tail, her foal's hair, and both of their hoofs and facial features. Furthermore, the foal is depicted in such proximity to Messaline that the two are structurally conjoined and their lines are partially blended. Haseltine painstakingly gave each of the bronzes in the series an inventive finish, carefully chose each marble base to match the color of his bronzes, and experimented with different types of embellishments and inlays to enhance their alluring elegance. The verdigris patina and parcel-gilt that Haseltine uses on Percheron Mare: Messaline and Foal rightfully give Haseltine's impressive portrait of this champion mare and foal a regal quality.

Haseltine also took into careful consideration the personalities of both animals when he modeled them. He later reflected on his experience modeling the powerful Messaline and her foal in comparison to Rhum that 'in strong contrast to the fiery and haughty Rhum, always on his toes, was the relaxed and patient-looking brood mare, whose sole preoccupation seemed to be caring for her offspring...The foal was the most difficult to model; he was always hiding behind his mother, and...was never still for one instant. I worked very quickly, however, and managed to convey the spirit of startled effrontery mingled with fear, as he pressed himself against the spacious flank of his protectress. I thought I could see in the tilt of his head and the rolling of his eyes, a distinct resemblance of his sire.' (as quoted in Champion Animals: Sculptures by Herbert Haseltine, 1996, p. 37)
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