6/25/2008

Little Lady Liberty

Storyteller Kate Dudding has a great story about Lady Liberty which draws you into the tale of how she was created by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi and set on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor in 1885. So I thought of Kate when I saw "Little Lady Liberty" in the parking lot of the Brooklyn Museum.










She has a story too - shown on the pedestal.

"Replica of Lady Liberty.
Artist Unknown Circa 1900

This 30 foot replica was commissioned about 1900 by the Russian-born auctioneer William H. Flattau to sit atop his eight-story Liberty Warehouse ( at 43 West 64th Street), then one of the highest points on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Flattau thus combined his entrepreneurial spirit with pride in the adoped country in which he had prospered.

Although squatter in proportion and less gracefully detailed than the massive original, Flattau's replica retained something of the forceful gravity of expression achieved by Bartholdi.

The sculpture is made of galvanized steel and zinc over an iron frame."









No comments: