HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
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HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
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PROPERTY FROM THE PHILLIPS FAMILY COLLECTION
HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)

Joy of the Waters

Details
HARRIET WHITNEY FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
Joy of the Waters
inscribed 'HARRIET W. FRISHMUTH Sc./© 1920' and stamped 'GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS/QBKX' (along the base)
bronze with brown patina and verdigris
44 in. (111.8 cm.) high on a 3 ½ in. (8.9 cm.) base
Modeled in 1920.
Provenance
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York.
Lee E. Phillips, Jr., Wichita, Kansas, acquired from the above, 1948.
By descent to the late owner.
Literature
C.N. Aronson, Sculptured Hyacinths, New York, 1973, pp. 26, 107-09, another example illustrated.
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, pp. 37-38, 40-42, 191, another example illustrated.
T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885, vol. II, New York, 2001, p. 640.
J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, New York, 2006, pp. 28-30, 37-38, 47-48, 67, 79n80, 146-47, 200, 238, 277, no. 1920:1, another example illustrated.

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Tylee Abbott
Tylee Abbott Vice President, Head of American Art

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Lot Essay

Harriet Frishmuth’s Joy of the Waters, modeled in 1920, is an elegant and charming sculpture exemplary of the exuberant female nude figures for which the artist is acclaimed. Frishmuth’s desire to portray the “vibrant expression of the female form in self-assured abandon” is embodied in this vivacious bronze cast. (J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, p. 28)

Joy of the Waters was conceived in two sizes, the sixty-one inch model cast in 1917 and the forty-four inch model in 1920. The present work, cast from the smaller model, is one from an edition of fifty-four, which, considering its size and cost, speaks to Frishmuth’s pride in the model as well as its enthusiastic reception among collectors. Frishmuth viewed Joy of the Waters as representative of her artistic capability. She “enjoyed the smaller, slimmer, and even more replicated Joy. She found that in this reduced size the rhythm and spirit of the design were better expressed.” (Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, p. 29)

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