Constance Whitney Warren (1888–1948) was an American sculptor and Mayflower descendant whose work connected American heritage with the international art world. Born into a prominent New York family, Warren became known particularly for sculptures of horses, cowboys, and the human figure. After moving to France, she pursued sculpture seriously and exhibited at the Paris Salon. One of her sculptures received an honorable mention there in 1923.

Warren’s family was deeply connected to the development of New York’s cultural institutions. Her father was among the founders of the Metropolitan Opera, linking her family directly to one of the country’s most important performing-arts institutions. Warren herself later entered the collection of another major New York institution: the Metropolitan Museum of Art held one of her sculptures for decades before deaccessioning it in 2014.

Her personal life also connected her to another chapter of American history. Warren married a great-great-grandson of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), the French aristocrat and military officer who became a major figure in the American Revolutionary War and maintained close relationships with Founding Fathers including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. Shown here is a signed bronze nude by Warren in the holdings of the Mayflower Descendants Museum, bringing together Mayflower ancestry, American sculpture, Parisian exhibition history, and the intertwined cultural history of the Metropolitan Opera and Metropolitan Museum of Art.