Small Spread Eagle

Details

HARRIET W. FRISHMUTH (1880-1980)
Small Spread Eagle
inscribed 'copyrighted/Harriet Frishmuth' and stamped 'GORHAM CO/FOUNDERS' and 'GEX' (along the back of the base)
bronze with dark green patina
7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm.) high;
23 3/4 in. (60.3 cm.) wide
Modeled in 1910; cast by 1921.

Provenance

Graham Shay 1857, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2018.

Literature

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Catalogue of the 105th Annual Exhibition, January 23 to March 10, 1920, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1910, p. 64, no. 799, another example referenced.
M.B. Hill, The Woman Sculptor: Malvina Hoffman and Her Contemporaries, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1984, p. 37, another example referenced.
J.C. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 42, another example referenced.
J.C. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, Captured Motion: The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, New York, 2006, pp. 21, 129, 220, no. 1910:9, another example illustrated.
A.D. Harris, Wildlife in American Art: Masterworks from the National Museum of Wildlife Art, exhibition catalogue, Jackson, Wyoming, 2009, p. 266, another example referenced.

Conditions of sale

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Tylee Abbott Senior Vice President, Head of American Art

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Lot Essay

One of the artist's few animal-themed sculptures, Small Spread Eagle was the first model in a series of three eagle sculptures Harriet Frishmuth created in the early 1910s. The Gorham Foundry produced sixteen bronze casts of the present work through 1921.

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