The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

White, marble sculpture of a woman's head carved with smoothed features. She has a long, narrow nose, thin lips pressed loosely together, and eyes hazily outlined with no further details. A fine line delineates where her hair would begin, arcing smoothly with a spherical bun visible protruding from the back of her head, a column of two more below barely visible and cast in shadow.

Goddess

1921–24
sculptor

Elie Nadelman

(American, born Russian Empire [now Poland], 1882–1946)
America
marble
with base: 58.1 x 23.5 x 36.2 cm (22 7/8 x 9 1/4 x 14 1/4 in.)
Bequest of James Parmelee 1940.576
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

During the Second World War, Elie Nadelman volunteered at the Bronx Veterans Hospital, teaching ceramics in the occupational therapy department.

Description

Sculptor Elie Nadelman once stated, “I employ no other line than the curve, which possesses freshness and force.” This approach is manifest in Goddess, a white marble head of a woman whose composition emphasizes smooth spherical shapes.
  • James Parmelee, Washington, D.C.
  • 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. #41, p. 42, repr.
    Haskell, Barbara, and Elie Nadelman. Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003. cat # (fig.) 169, p. 145.
    Milliken, William. "The Bequest of James Parmelee." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 2 (February 1941): 15-27. Mentioned: p. 20 www.jstor.org
  • Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 27-July 20, 2003).
    The Precisionist Aesthetic in American Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-April 9, 1989).
    The American Way in Sculpture 1890-1930. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12-October 19, 1986).
    The Sculpture and Drawings of Elie Nadelman. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 23-November 30, 1975); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., DC (December 20, 1975-February 15, 1976).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=Goddess|url=false|author=Elie Nadelman|year=1921–24|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1940.576