The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 14, 2025

A realistic, hand-painted plaster sculpture of a Black boy's head and top half of his torso. The sculpture looks bronze and the subject wears a flat cap and looks slightly to our left.

Gamin

c. 1929
(American, 1892–1962)
America
hand-painted plaster
Overall: 44.5 x 24.2 x 20.4 cm (17 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2003.40
Location: 226B American Modern

Did You Know?

A trailblazer, Savage was the first African American member of the National Association of Women Artists.

Description

Augusta Savage was the most acclaimed sculptor working during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ‘30s, and Gamin is her most famous work. It was long thought that the image was a generic figure; however, recent research reveals that it depicts her nephew. The warm characterization likely arises from the close bond shared between artist and model. Although several small versions of the sculpture were produced, this life-size, hand-painted plaster is unique, and likely the oldest surviving example of the subject.
  • Litt, Steven. "Steward Breaks New Ground with Sculptures at Library," Plain Dealer, August 15, 2021. Mentioned P. D4
    Ausherman, Maria, Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors. (Novato, CA: Goff Books, 2022). Reproduced p. 135.
    Korobin, Tess, "Monumental Absence: Augusta Savage's Unbuilt Monuments, 1931-1943," American Art 37 (Fall 2023). Mentioned and reproduced p. 58.
    Cover of Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life. June 1929. Cover
    "Une femme sculpteur noire." La Depeche Litteraire et Artistique (Aug/Sept. 1930) . Mentioned: p. 5
    "Harlem's Community Center." Marcia Minor. Daily Worker, August 1, 1938.
    Stromberg, Suzanne Schell. "Afro-American Art of the Harlem Renaissance." (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973). Mentioned: p. 83
    Leininger-Miller, Theresa A. New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
    Litt, Steven. "Art museum acquires top sculpture by Savage." Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 2, 2003. Mentioned: p. E1; Reproduced: p. E6
    The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (September 2003), cover. Cover
    Robinson, William. "Renaissance Kid." The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (October 2003) Mentioned: p. 6; Reproduced: p. 6
    Robinson, William, "Renaissance Kid", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 08, October 2003 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
    "Major Acquisitions 2000-2005." Cleveland Art 45 (July/August 2005) Mentioned: p. 14; Reproduced: p. 19
    Rosenkranz, Conner. 19th & 20th Century American Sculpture. Smithsonian Libraries, 2007. Mentioned: p. 44; Reproduced: p. 61
    Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Reproduced: 132 - 133
    Gordon, Margery. "Eyes on the Prizes." Art & Auction (February 2008) Mentioned: p. 117; Reproduced: p. 117
    Cole, Mark, "Jacob Lawrence's Fulton and Nostrand", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 48 no. 2, February 2008 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 7 archive.org
    Cole, Mark. African American Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced: p. 3, 20
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 58
    Brown, Marilyn. The Gamin De Paris in Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture: Delacroix, Hugo, and the French Social Imaginary. New York : Routledge, 2017. Mentioned: p. 118-119; Reproduced: pl. 24.
    Adams, Henry. "The Invisible Man: William Robinson." CAN Journal (Spring 2017): 80-83. Reproduced: p. 82
    Korobkin, Tess. "Monumental Absence: Augusta Savage's Unbuilt Monuments, 1931-1943." American Art 37, no. 3 (Fall 2023): 48-71. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 58, fig. 6
  • {{cite web|title=Gamin|url=false|author=Augusta Savage|year=c. 1929|access-date=14 June 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.40