The Girl from Senegal
Entry ID
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62 (18/01/2022)
Formal title of the work
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The Girl from Senegal
Description of the sculpture
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A bronze bust of Madeleine Béchet, daughter of a French father and a Senegalese mother. In his 1940 autobiography, Epstein recounts how he asked her to pose after passing her one day on the street and feeling inspired by her “delicate and aristocratic beauty."
URLs where this is recorded/available
Type of object
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Bust – Portrait
Base
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No base
Dimensions
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Height: 55.9 cm
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Width: 46 cm
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Depth: 33.7 cm
Materials
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Bronze
Specific techniques used
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Casting
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Patination
Overall colour
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Monochrome – brown
Does the Black person have a specific identity?
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Identifiable: specific individual
Identity of Black person (real or fictive)
Role within sculpture
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Main protagonist
Gender
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Female
Age
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Adult
Status
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Free citizen
Clothing
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No clothes included (head)
Evidence of enslavement
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None
Evidence of 'exotic' status
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None
Action or activity
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Not relevant (head)
Emotional state
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Noble/proud
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Neutral/emotionless
Focus of gaze of Black person
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Looking outwards (engaging viewer)
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Eyes half-shut
Sculptural context
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No location included/implied
Sculptor
Place of production
Period of production
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Twentieth century (1900-1999)
Date of Production
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c. 1921 - 1923
Date inferred from
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Recorded in related documentation
Original purpose
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Decorative
Original display setting
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Unknown
Current owner
Current / most recently known location
Accession number
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S.1929.3
Provenance history
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1929: gifted to The Whitworth by Arthur Edward Anderson
License terms for reuse
http://13.41.147.145/s/database/item/21, . (no date) ‘The Girl from Senegal’, Black People in European Sculpture, accessed May 5, 2025, http://13.41.147.145/s/database/item/533
