[Unveiled 1898] 1827-1895
b. Brattleboro, Vt. • d. Newport, R.I.
Sculptor: Daniel Chester French
1850-1931 • USA
Located on the perimeter of the Central Park and
across from the Frick Museum, is this monument
to Richard Morris Hunt an American architect
of great prominence whose defining signature
emulated the French Beaux-Arts style.
Several
blocks uptown, one can see a fine example of
his artistic magnitude in the facade of theMetropolitan Museum of Art. Hunt’s legacy is celebrated by renowned
sculptor Daniel Chester French, whose most
renowned work is the gigantic seated figure
of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D.C.
Here, the setting for the sculptures is an
exedra - a semicircular portico with a curved
bench - done in neo-Renaissance style. At its
center is a bust of Hunt, with the two allegorical
statues of Architecture first and then Painting
and Sculpture standing guard at both ends of the
semicircular colonnade. Inscribed on tablets
around the exedra are the names of each of
the organizations in which Hunt played a
major role.
