The Dreamer

This statuette of a seated woman is by Scottish artist Mary Buchanan. Buchanan trained at Paisley School of Design and at Glasgow School of Art. This work is signed on the integral base 'M Buchanan/ Paris 1910', indicating she produced it while in Paris. She spent several years there, working in the studios of Antoine Bourdelle and Ossip Zadkine.

The fluid surface, and pensive form of the figure echoes some of Rodin's oeuvre, and also recalls the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier. From 1911 to 1931 Buchanan showed her work at numerous exhibitions in London (notably the Royal Academy), Paisley, Glasgow and Edinburgh. She also exhibited at the Paris Salon. In addition to small bronze figures, Buchanan sculpted figures and heads in wood and marble.

Another cast of the same statuette, titled "La rêveuse" (the dreamer) is at the City Art Center collection in Edinburgh. Buchanan also exhibited a cast under the title 'The Dreamer' at the Paisley Art Institute in 1911.