Doris Caesar once said, “I try to be emotional, and yet get away from reality.” Characte

Doris Caesar once said, “I try to be emotional, and yet get away from reality.” Characteristic of her expressive work, this figure is elongated and gaunt. The surface of the piece is covered with marks left by the artist’s hands as she worked the clay that would later be cast in bronze. With her slumped posture, drooping shoulders, and downturned facial features, the widow’s body appears to convey the emotional weight of her grief.

See this sculpture in our newest installation “Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century.”

“The Widow,” around 1930–50, by Doris Caesar