Play Days

Harriet Frishmuth was a renowned sculptor in bronze. She studied briefly under Auguste Rodin at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris among other accomplished sculptors in the US. She reviled the term "sculptress" and the dispirited senselessness of "modern art". Instead she favored more traditional stylings: graceful, balletic posing and pleasant, formal constructions. She had a singular ability to capture the explosive energy of the human form, while still maintaining its pointed grace.

Play Days is not as formally dynamic as many of her other sculptures, instead motion and energy are implied in the deliberate positioning of her arms. The figure, supported on a lily pad by only her toes, seems to teeter gently back and forth. She balances herself with her arms, and carefully watches her step so she neither falls nor steps on one of the four frogs that spout water at her feet. The figure captures the sense of both the glee of exploration but also the deliberate care for safety that occur in childlike frolicking.

This piece is one of 99 original casts from 1925. The figure stands about 53 inches tall and has been corroded significantly by the elements.