Angela Gregory (American/New Orleans, 1903-1990, active Newcomb College 1921-1925, 1935-1942), "Plantation Madonna", cast bronze figural group of a "nanny" cradling an infant, surrounded by three children and a sleeping dog, c. 1938, cast signature, on square wood base, height 12.25in., width 8.875in., depth 8.25in. E12000-18000 Provenance: Estate of Angela Gregory, New Orleans. Note: Angela Gregory, the daughter of one of the most talented of the early Newcomb Pottery decorators, Selina Bres, was exposed to art from an early age. When she was just fifteen and taking summer classes with William Woodward at Tulane University, Anglea wrote, "I never want to do another thing but clay modeling...I have decided to be a sculptor..." She went on to study for two years in Paris with renowned sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. He emphasized that sculpture was an art having qualities of both painting and architecture. Gregory later recalled, "Looking at my sculpture of the "Plantation Madonna",...I can see exactly what Bourdelle meant." Gregory taught at Newcomb College, was artist in residence at St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans and served as the state supervisor of the WPA art project in New Orleans. She was one of but a handful of female sculptors from the 1920's and ranks among an even smaller number of women in the country to have created several public monuments, including: the reliefs on the Criminal Courts building in New Orleans, the statues of Bienville and John McDonogh, both in New Orleans, and many of the oversized figures which surround the exterior of the state capitol in Baton Rouge. Reference: Sculpting the Future: Paris 1925-1928, by Angela Gregory and Nancy Penrose, pp. 9, 10.