Famed for her small bronze figures full of expression and movement, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth was one of the most successful American sculptors of the early 20th century. She preferred to work from a live model and used professional dancers as an example for her female nudes. In doing so, she was guided by the advice of Auguste Rodin, from whom she had taken lessons as a young girl: 'always look first at the silhouette of your subject and let it guide you; then remember that movement is always the transition from one posture to another '.