New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2007.

The Truant

Artist Chauncey Bradley Ives (American, 1810 - 1894)

CultureAmerican

DateModeled 1871

MediumMarble

DimensionsOverall: 36 5/8 x 17 x 29 3/8 in. (93 x 43.2 x 74.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase

Object number86.482

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 115-2 - Wonderstudio

Label TextChauncey Bradley Ives American (1810-1894) The Truant, modeled 1871 Marble Gift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase 86.482 Sentimental childhood subjects held a strong appeal for nineteenth-century audiences, and America's neoclassical sculptors responded to that market with numerous images of children at play. Ives' The Truant offers a mischievous twist to the theme. Here a barefoot girl- perhaps nine or ten years old- has been distracted by a sea shell on her way to school. Stopping to rest on a rocky outcropping and lifting the shell to her ear, she is captivated by the sound of the ocean. Her straw hat and school books -emblems of responsibility- lay forgotten at her side. Her disheveled dress further confirms her carefree attitude. As such, she offers a lighthearted challenge to the diligent school boy in Joseph Mozier's Young America, on view at left. Contemporary viewers relished such behavioral opposites and would have smiled knowingly at both visions of childhood innocence. Exhibition History"The Ricau Collection," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., February 26 - April 23, 1989. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesH. Nichols B. Clark. A MARBLE QUARRY: THE JAMES H. RICAU COLLECTION OF SCULPTURE AT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART. NY: Hudson Hills Press, Inc.. 1997. pgs.114-116.