Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature
"JANET SCUDDER TELLS WHY SO FEW WOMEN ARE SCULPTORS: They Do Not Approach the Subject Seriously Enough She Says -- Will Go Back to Paris to Create a Fountain for John D. Rockefeller's Estate at Pocantico Hills and Finish Other Work," The New York Times, February 18, 1912, vol. LXI, no. 19,748, magazine sec., pt. five, p. 13, another example listed. (as The Little Lady of the Sea)
Société des Artistes Francais, Catalogue illustré du Salon de 1913, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1913, n.p., no. 4056. (as La petite dame de la Mer)
"MEMORIAL TO D.H. BURNHAM: Miss Janet Scudder Designing a Fountain to be Placed in Manila," The New York Times, December 24, 1913, vol. LXIII, no. 20,423, p. 11, another example listed. (as Little Lady by the Sea)
A.N. Meyer, "The Woman's Room at the World's Fair," The International Studio, New York, August 1916, vol. LIX, no. 234, p. XXXII, another example listed.
Century Magazine, January 1917, another example illustrated.
"JANET SCUDDER, SCULPTOR, DIES, 66; One of the World's Foremost Women in Field Succumbs in Summer Home FAMOUS FOR FOUNTAINS Works Shown in 14 Museums --Had Lived in Paris for 45 Years--Also a Painter Returned Here Last Fall Worked at Chicago Fair of '93 Some of Her Sculptures Aided French in Two Wars," The New York Times, June 11, 1940, vol. LXXXIX, no. 30,089, p. 25, another example listed. (as Little Lady of the Sea)
J. Scudder, Modeling My Life, New York, 1925, pp. vii, 214, 216, life-size version illustrated.
W. Kirkland, F. Kirkland, Girls Who Became Artists, New York and London, 1934, p. 96, another example listed.
The American Society Legion of Honor Magazine, New York, 1943, v.14, p. 220, another example listed.
The Hall of American Artists Series, New York, 1955, vol. 9-10, p. 85, another example listed.
The Huntington Library, The Huntington Art Collections: A Handbook, San Marino, California, 1986, pp. 170-71, 189, no. 13.7, life-size version illustrated.
The Huntington Library, The Huntington Botanical Gardens 1905...1949: Personal Recollections of William Hertrich, San Marino, California, 1988, p. 92, life-size version illustrated.
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, 1989, pp. 156, 160, 207, another example listed. (as Little Lady of the Sea)
C.C. Eldredge, We Gather Together: American Artists and the Harvest, Oakland, California, 2021, pp. 256-57, 311, another example listed.

A life-size version can be found in the collection of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (object no. 13.7).

Janet Scudder's Little Lady from the Sea was conceived in 1913 and belongs to a period when some of her best-known works were produced. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen's (1828-1906) play by the same title, Little Lady from the Sea depicts a child stepping backward up a pile of rocks with her eyes focused on the water below and arms raised with a strand of dripping seaweed above her bent head. From 1900 onward, Scudder focused on depictions of joyous children and youthful literary characters, often in fountain form, and are the subjects she is best known for today. A life-size casting of Little Lady from the Sea was exhibited at the 1913 Paris Salon and Scudder was awarded honorable mention for the sculpture. It was subsequently purchased from the Salon by Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) for his San Marion, California home—now the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Later that same year in November, Scudder included an example in her first one-woman exhibition held at Theodore B. Starr Galleries in New York and later at the Architectural League in 1917. For the life-size version, Scudder produced an edition of four and of the smaller version, which the present work is an example of, at least nine were cast by Roman Bronze Works, Inc. (J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, 1989, p. 160.)