Hahlo-140, Venus

Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum, S0000323.

140. Statuette. “Venus”

There are a handful of nude statuettes catalogued in the Juley Archive at the Smithsonian that could be Venus. Or she could be something else. She appears in at least three exhibitions in 1912—Hartford, this one, and the National Arts Club exhibition that follows, but an actual description of the work has yet to be located. Dick Johnson has noted that “Venus” is also known as “Expectancy,” which is evocative of the sculpture in the image above. In Juley Archive, however, the photo is labeled as “Timidity” so the identification of the “Venus” statue remains inconclusive.