Following the 1929 stock market crash, Elie Nadelman lost his fortune and customer base. Since he could no longer afford to make large-scale marble sculptures, Nadelman began creating small decorative figures in ceramic and papier-mâché. Although conceived out of necessity, such works marked a dramatic change in the artist’s practice, driving him to be more improvisational. The playful subject of Girl with Poodle—a young woman with her pet dog in her lap—was inspired by a summer the artist spent in Ostend, Belgium. His landlady there had a poodle, and the dog appears in numerous drawings from this period. Here, she and her faithful companion are rendered in graceful, flowing curved forms and a delicate color palette. According to Nadelman, “It is form itself, not semblance to nature, which gives us pleasure in a work of art.”

Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017