Undine Rising from the Waters

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Chauncey Bradley Ives (American, 1810–1894)
Undine Rising from the Waters, ca. 1880–92
Marble, 60 1/2 x 19 x 15 1/2 in. (153.7 x 48.3 x 39.4 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Alice A. Allen, in memory of her father, Simon Sterne
1926.116

Undine was the heroine of a popular French nineteenth-century romantic novel in which a mermaid princess forsakes the carefree life of a water-spirit to gain a soul by marrying the mortal knight she loves. When her husband proves unfaithful, Undine is forced by the laws of the water-spirits to kill him. Ives depicts the moment when the mournful Undine, cloaked in a white veil, rises like a fountain from the castle's wellspring to claim her husband's life. The exquisitely carved wet drapery is one of the most notable American examples of see-through illusionism popular in mid-nineteenth-century sculpture.