Dawn

About the Artwork

Created while Chester Beach was living in Rome, Dawn features a nude man on horseback against a background of human forms emerging from a cloud of rolling mist. Although carved in the round from a block of marble, the sculpture has one primary view.

Inscriptions

Signed on side: CB (monogram) Roma 1912

Exhibition history

Sculpture of Our Time. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 5, 1937). The American Way in Sculpture 1890-1930. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12-October 19, 1986). Rodin and America: Influence and Adaptation 1876-1936. Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University (organizer) (October 5, 2011-January 1, 2012).

Quick Overview

Artist: Chester Beach (American, 1881–1956)
Date: 1912
Medium: marble
Dimensions: Overall: 55.3 cm (21 3/4 in.); without base: 35.6 cm (14 in.)
Type: Sculpture
Classification: Sculpture
Department: American Painting and Sculpture
Credit line: Anonymous Gift
Accession no.: 1917.630

Provenance

The Cleveland Museum of Art’s open-access data does not include an ownership history for this work. See the museum’s page for this work.

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.