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Sculptures of Central Park |
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The 107th Infantry memorial is dedicated to the men who served in the 107th New York Infantry Regiment during World War I. The regiment was, as its name implies, stationed in New York, and consisted of males mainly from this region. In 1917, the National Guard's 7th New York Infantry Regiment reformed into 107th New York Infantry Regiment by merging the 7th, with parts of 1st and 12th IR, and smaller detachments from the 10th IR. The regiment was stationed at Camp Wadsworth until May 1918, when they were ordered to deploy to France, as part of the 27th (New York) Infantry Division. While in France, they saw heavy action, and at the end of the war in November 1918, of the 3700 men that originally was a part of the regiment, 580 men were killed and 1487 wounded, with four of the regiment's soldiers being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The memorial depicts 7 men; the one to the far right carrying two Mill bombs, while supporting the wounded soldier next to him. To his right another infantryman rushes towards the enemy positions, while the helmetless squad leader and another soldier are approaching the enemy with bayonets fixed. To the far left, one soldier is holding a mortally wounded soldier, keeping him on his feet. The bronze memorial was donated by 7th-107th Memorial Committee, and was designed by Karl Illava, who served in the 107th IR as a sergeant in WWI. The monument was first conceived during around 1920, was made in 1926-1927 and was placed in the park and unveiled in 1927. Can be found by the perimeter wall, at Fifth Avenue and 67th Street.
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One large sculpture depicts Alice, from Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The statue is located on East 74th street on the north side of Central Park's Conservatory Water. Alice is pictured sitting on a giant mushroom, reaching toward a pocket watch held by the March Hare, host of the book's tea party. Peering over her shoulder is the Cheshire cat, flanked one one side by the dormouse, and on the other by Mad Hatter, who in contrast to the calm Alice looks ready to laugh out loud at any moment. Publisher and philanthropist George T. Delacorte Jr. ordered the sculpture from José de Creeft, in honor of Delacorte's late wife, Margarita, and to the enjoyment of the children of New York. Unveiled in 1959, de Creeft's sculpture tries to follow John Tenniel's whimsical Victorian illustrations from the first edition of the book. According to various sources, Alice is said to look like de Creeft's daughter Donna. The Alice in Wonderland project's architects and designers were Hideo Sasaki and Fernando Texidor, who inserted some plaques with inscriptions from the book in the terrace around the sculpture. Margarita's favorite poem, "The Jabberwocky" is also included; chiseled in a granite circle surrounding the sculpture.
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Bethesda Fountain is the central feature on the lower level of Bethesda Terrace overlooking The Lake in New York City's Central Park. The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by Emma Stebbins in 1868 and unveiled in 1873. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City. The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to the Gospel of John, Chapter 5 where there is a description of an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below. The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace.
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Balto was dedicated to the sled dogs that led several dogsled teams through a snow-storm in the winter of 1925 in order to deliver medicines that would stop a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska. The sculpture is slightly larger than the real-life dog, and is placed on a rock outcropping on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo. The sculpture was created by Frederick George Richard Roth, and placed in the park in 1925. Like so many other monuments in the park, it's made of bronze, and it was donated to the park by the Balto Monument Committee to the City of New York. Under the sculpture, a small plaque can be found, containing the following inscription: Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins 660 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925.
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Somewhat hidden within the abundant display of flower beds, shrubs, trees and hedges, emerges a statuary fountain of two bronze figures depicting the characters from Francis Hodgson Burnett’s American children’s classic, The Secret Garden (1911). The tranquil innocence of Mary, the young girl stands holding a basin where water delicately flows for the birds to dapple in, while the young boy Dickon reclines on a rock overlooking a serene water lily pool as he plays his flute.
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In 1892, a sculpture of Christopher Columbus was donated to Central Park by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. The statue replicates one made by Jeronimo Suñol in 1892, located at the Plaza de Colon, in Madrid, Spain. The New York version was placed in the park in 1894, and is today one of two monuments of Columbus found in the park's environs, the other being the statue surmounting the column at Columbus Circle. The sculpture depicts the explorer standing with outstretched arms, looking towards the heavens in gratitude for his successful voyage.
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High upon a pedestal, across from the east entrance to Central Park's Strawberry Fields, is a bronze statue of Daniel Webster. Poised with an air of haughtiness, he stands next to a podium with his overcoat draped over an array of books. An American orator, lawyer and politician, Webster was best known as the 19th century's foremost advocate of American nationalism. During his political lifetime he served as a U.S. congressman (1813-17, 1823-27), a U.S. senator (1827-41, 1845-50), and U.S. secretary of state (1841-43, 1850-52).
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Eagles and Prey, designed and created by Christopher Fratin, is the oldest known sculpture in any New York City park. It is made of bronze, and was cast in Paris, France in 1850 and was placed in the park in 1863. The sculpture was donated by Gordon Webster Burnham, who also donated the statue of Daniel Webster, as well as other statues in other cities. The monument depicts a goat, wedged accidentally between two rocks, which is about to be devoured by two Eagles. Their talons are sunk into the back of the goat as they flap their wings in victory.
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The statue of Fitz Greene Halleck occupies a spot among the elms. He is found seated in a chair with his legs crossed, holding a small booklet in one hand and a quill in the other.For all its nobility this statue is he oddest placement in Central Park although Halleck was a prominent member of the Knickerbocker Group a society of writers who sought to promote New York City as a literary center. Though influenced in the spirit of the pen by Byron, Scott and Burns, whose company he occupies on Literary Walk he was never all that inspired to make poetry his vocation. His time was basically consumed by his work as a bank employee and as the confidential secretary to John Jacob Astor. He definitely had powerful, wealthy and influential friends, which might shed some light on the obscure reasoning for his bronze immortality. Halleck is best known for his satires and his verse eulogy of Marco Bozzaris, a Greek patriot.
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Just west of the Conservatory Water where kids often race miniature sailboats, the statue of Hans Christian Andersen awaits exploration. The memorial was built primarily with funds raised by Danish and American schoolchildren in memory of the author of such famous tales as "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Ugly Duckling." On Saturdays at 11 a.m. from May through September, children (and parents) gather to hear free storytelling based on his fairy tales near his statue.
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This striking bronze statue by John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) demonstrates the technical mastery of an artist later dubbed “the dean of American sculptors.” It depicts a Native American hunter, bow in hand, restraining his snarling hunting dog. Cast in 1866 and dedicated on February 4, 1869, the statue was the first sculpture by an American artist to be placed in Central Park, and is one of the oldest works on outdoor display in the park.
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Ladies and gentlemen, here we have the oldest portrait sculpture in Central Park. The centennial of German playwright and philosopher Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was met with enthusiastic celebrations around town, especially in German neighborhoods such as nearby Yorkville. Schiller, who wrote the plays William Tell, Don Carlos, and Wallenstein, was a champion of human rights and liberty and also of German unification and reform.
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This heroic bronze equestrian statue depicts Argentine general Jose de San Martín (1778–1850), who helped Argentina, Chile, and Peru gain independence from the Spanish in the early part of the 19th century. The statue is a replica of a work by French sculptor Louis Joseph Daumas (1801–1887) dating to 1862. The original is in Buenos Aires in a more elaborate setting. In 1950 the City of Buenos Aires gave this piece to the City of New York, in exchange for a statue previously sent to Argentina of General George Washington to whom San Martín is often compared. The monument was dedicated on May 25, 1951 on a pedestal of polished black granite designed by the noted architectural firm of Clarke & Rapuano.
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José Julián Martí Pérez (28 January, 1853–19 May 1895) was a leader of the Cuban independence movement from Spain and as well a renowned poet and writer. He is considered the national hero of Cuba and often referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". In many literary circles he is considered the Father of Modernismo predating and influencing Rubén Darío and influencing other poets such as Gabriela Mistral. Gift of the artist to the Cuban government for presentation to the people of New York City.
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It is one of the biggest as well as one of most impressive of twenty-nine sculptures located in Central Park. The Monument is sited overlooking the east end of the Turtle Pond, across from Belvedere Castle and just south-east from the Great Lawn. King Jagiello, seated on a horse, is holding over his head - as a symbol of defiance and of the union of Polish-Lithuanian forces - two crossed swords, offered him and Vytautas the Great just before the beginning of the Battle of Grunwald in an ironic gesture by Ulrich von Jungingen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. The monument depicts the triumph of Jagiello, one of the most famous kings in the histories of Poland and Lithuania, creator of the dynastic union of Poland and Lithuania, at the medieval Battle of Grunwald in 1410 (also known as the First Battle of Tannenberg in German and western historiography), where Polish and Lithuanian forces supported by Ruthenians, Czechs and Tatars defeated the Teutonic Order, which had the support of primarily German, Dutch and English finest knights.
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The Tisch Children's Zoo opened in 1961. It was donated by Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary. Designed by Paul Manship, the sculptor of one of the more elaborate gates at the Wildlife Conservation Center in the Bronx (the Bronx Zoo), the animals, birds, and boys are interwoven in a fanciful scrolling lintel. The main figure in the center depicts a dancing boy, flanked by two dancing goats. The music is provided by two other boys positioned over the end posts, playing panpipes. Between the human figures is a curlicue of vegetation interwoven with birds, which appear to have just alighted. The whole composition is a lovely commentary on the interaction between children and animals, fitting for the zoo entrance.
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