The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 10, 2023

Turtle Baby

c. 1910–16

Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons

(American, 1878–1956)

America, 20th century

Bronze

Overall: 104.2 cm (41 in.)

Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection 1923.724

Edition: 6 in edition

Location

000 Education Gallery

Fun Fact

Parsons created similar sculptures featuring young girls and boys with ducks, frogs, and fish.

Description

Parsons achieved renown through her garden sculptures of young children accompanied by animals, which one commentator praised for capturing “the happiness of just being alive.” In Turtle Baby, her most famous composition, the figure of the girl was modeled after her daughter. Conceived as a fountain, the sculpture has internal water conduits exiting the mouths of the four turtles circling its base.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed on base: E. BARRETTO PARSONS COPYRIGHT

Provenance
Mrs. Henry A. Everett
Citations
Solender, Katherine. The American Way in Sculpture, 1890-1930. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. cat. #28, p. 32, repr.
W. M. M. "Contemporary American Bronzes." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 10 (1919): 151-63. Mentioned: p. 153 www.jstor.org
Gibson, Katherine. "'Michael, Rubens, and Some More of Us' In the Children’s Museum, Cleveland." The American Magazine of Art 15, no. 1 (1924): 707-10. Reproduced: p. 709; Mentioned: p. 708-09 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

The American Way in Sculpture 1890-1930. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12-October 19, 1986).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

The American Impressionists in the Garden. Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, TN (organizer) (March 13-September 6, 2010); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL (September 24, 2010-January 3, 2011); Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH (February 18-May 15, 2011).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.724