Lot Description
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980)
'Playdays'
inscribed 'HARRIET.W FRISHMUTH' and stamped 'GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS' (along the base)
bronze with verdigris patina
52 in. (132.1 cm.) high
Provenance
Private collection, Florida.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1960s.
Pre-Lot Text
Property from a Private Collection, Toronto, Canada
Literature
C.N. Aronson, Sculptured Hyacinths, New York, 1973, pp. 138-44, another example illustrated.
J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles and F.L. Hohmann, III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, New York, 2006, pp. 120-25, 248, other examples illustrated.
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Lot Notes
A master of lyrical sculpture, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth is renowned for her graceful and lively figures. Playdays was inspired by the study of a young girl, Madeline Parker, just entering adolescence at the age of 13. Desha, Frishmuth's friend and favorite model, introduced the artist to the young dancer who suggested the pose of tickling a frog with her foot. A fifty-two inches high version of this work won the Gold Medal given by the Garden Club of America in 1928. Other casts of Playdays are located at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, Mrs. Harriman's Garden, Washington, D.C. and the Frishmuth Gallery, Hundred Acres, Arcade, New York.
This work is piped as a fountain.
