Bust Of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Artist
June Harrah Lord
(American, 1910 - 1997)
CultureAmerican
Date1933
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 11 3/8 x 5 1/2 in. (28.9 x 14 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number90.61
Not on view
DescriptionBronze head of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., at age twenty-four.Label TextJune Harrah Lord American (1910-1997) Bust of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1933 Bronze Museum purchase, 90.61 In the early 1930s, Walter Chrysler, Jr. (1909-1988), son of the founder of the Chrysler Corporation, was a budding art collector and patron eager to support emerging artists of talent. One such artist was June Harrah (later June Harrah Lord), who first achieved fame in the 1930s for her realistic bronze sculptures of thoroughbred race horses and pedigreed show dogs. Her work proved popular among wealthy American sporting enthusiasts. Among them was the young Chrysler, who at the time kept race horses at North Wales, his country estate near Middleburg, Virginia. In 1933, Chrysler commissioned Harrah to create his portrait bust in bronze. It is the only sculptural image of Chrysler that survives, and it is one of only two such human busts Harrah ever made. The other was of his brother, Jack. Harrah's portrait of Walter Chrysler portrays him at age twenty-four, a year before he founded the Air-Temp division of the Chrysler Corporation and two years before he acquired the presidency of the Chrysler Building in New York. In time he would become one of the most eclectic and visionary American collectors of the twentieth century. The broad holdings of the Chrysler Museum celebrate his legacy. Exhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25,1996 - February 16, 1997. "Women of the Chrysler: a 400-Year Celebration of the Arts," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., March 24 - July 18, 2010.
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