CHAUNCEY BRADLEY IVES (AMERICAN, 1810-1894): AN IMPORTANT MARBLE SCULPTURE OF REBECCA AT THE WELL Rebecca wearing a headdress and loose tunic, leaning against the brickwork of the well and holding an urn in her right hand, raised on a shaped circular base, signed 'C. B. IVES / FECIT ROMÆ. 1864',  111cm high  This important marble figure is of identical design to the marble figure of Rebecca at the well by Ives that is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan Museum example was carved two years after the present figure and although we do not know who originally commissioned the work, it was in the family of Paul Forbes in New York in 1886 and descended in his family to Mrs. Henry Forbes (Anna C.) McCreery, New York, until 1899 when it was gifted to the museum where it remains today on view in gallery 727.  Ives first modeled "Rebecca at the Well" in Rome in 1854, and it became his most popular work. Twenty-five marble replicas were sold over a period of forty years. The Metropolitan's marble was carved in Rome in 1866. Like other neoclassical sculptors, Ives derived many of his subjects from the Bible, especially the Old Testament. In Genesis 24:11–23, Rebecca was chosen to be the bride of Isaac, the son of Abraham, after offering him water from her pitcher drawn from a well. Related Literature: A. Gardner, American Sculpture, A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Connecticut, 1965, p. 9, illustration of another example W. Gerdts, American Neo-Classic Sculpture, New York, 1973, pp. 68-69, illustration of another example W. Craven, Sculpture in America, New York, revised 1984, p. 286. Auction Comparables: Ives's most sought after model is 'Undine Receives Her (Mortal) Soul', an example was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 May 2004, lot 31, $276,000. A further example was sold at Sotheby's New York, 7 May 2015, lot 59, $212,500,  Museum Comparables: Ives's work appears in many prestigious museum in the US, including Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo, New York, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., New York Historical Society, New York City, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.