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The Solitude of the Soul
by Lorado Taft
Inscriptions
Signed and dated left, bottom-right, on base, chiseled: "LORADO TAFT SC• 1914".
Exhibition history
Buffalo, NY, Pan-American Exposition, May 1–Nov. 2, 1901 (plaster version awarded Silver Medal). Saint Louis, The Art Palace, Universal Exposition, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Apr. 30–Dec. 1, 1904 (plaster version awarded Silver Medal). Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, no. 1215. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, June 1–Nov. 1, 1934, no. 832.
Publications
Arthur Anderson Merritt, "Work of Chicago Artists," Brush and Pencil 9, no. 6 (Mar., 1902): 344 (plaster version), https://www.jstor.org/stable/25505725. Charles M. Kurtz, "Work of the Society of Western Artists," Brush and Pencil 11, no. 5 (Feb., 1903): 345 (ill.) (plaster version), https://www.jstor.org/stable/25505854. Mrs. John B. Sherwood, "What Shall We Do with the Nude in Art?" Fine Arts Journal 23, no. 6 (Dec., 1910): 321–28 (ill.), https://www.jstor.org/stable/23905835. "The December Exhibitions," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 4, no. 3 (Jan., 1911): 38, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4116633. Friends of American Art Year Book, 1910-11, 1st ed. (Art Institute of Chicago: 1911), 17 (ill.). "Chicago," American Art News 11, no. 12 (Dec. 28, 1912): 8, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25590952. Friends of American Art Year Book, 1911–1912, 2nd ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1912), 13 (ill.). Giselle D'Unger, "A Sculptor's Dream of the Chicago Beautiful," Fine Arts Journal 29, no. 5 (Nov., 1913): 669–75, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25603450. Friends of American Art Year Book, 1912–1913, 3rd ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1913), 15 (ill.). "Art in Chicago," Art and Progress 5, no. 8 (June 1914): 306–7, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20561184. "Notes," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 8, no. 2 (Oct., 1914): 22–23 (ill.), https://www.jstor.org/stable/4119947. Mary Adams Stearns, "The Influence of the Human Body on Art and Literature," Fine Arts Journal 31, no. 3 (Sep., 1914): 455–66 (ill.), https://doi.org/10.2307/25587275. William M. R. French, Art Institute of Chicago General Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and Other Objects in the Museum (Art Institute of Chicago, 1914), 85, cat. 998 (ill.), https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.fl3r4m. Friends of American Art Year Book, 1913–1914, 4th ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1914), 17 (ill.). Friends of American Art Year Book, 1914–1915, 5th ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1915), 20, 149 (ill.). Evelyn Marie Stuart, "Methods and Men," Fine Arts Journal 35, no. 2 (Feb., 1917): 158, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25587452. George William Eggers, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings: Part I: Architecture and Sculpture, vol. 1 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), 84, cat. 998 (ill.). Robert B. Harshe, Catalogue of a Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Lent from American Collections, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), 113, cat. 1215. Daniel Catton Rich, ed., Catalogue of a Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934 exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), 93, cat. 832. "Lorado Taft, 1860–1936," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 30, no. 7 (Dec., 1936): 93, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4119985. Lewis W. Williams II, "Lorado Taft: American Sculptor and Art Missionary," (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1958), 273, 382 (ill.). Timothy J. Garvey, "Conferring Status: Lorado Taft's Portraits of an Artistic Community," Illinois Historical Journal 78, no. 3 (Fall, 1985): 165, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40191856. Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 285–287, cat. 143 (ill.). Matthew Brennan, "The Solitude of the Soul: 3D Model," Sketchfab, accessed Feb. 2, 2026, https://skfb.ly/SvCL.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Lorado Taft (American, 1860–1936)
- Date
- Modeled in plaster 1901; sculpted in marble 1914
- Medium
- Marble
- Dimensions
- 231.2 × 129.6 × 105.5 cm (91 × 51 × 41 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- sculpture
- Place
- Chicago
- Department
- Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Friends of American Art Collection
- Accession no.
- 1914.739
Provenance
Commissioned to be carved in marble by the Friends of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, 1911 [Friends of American Art, 1911]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1914.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00001877
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