Smithsonian American Art Museum
Philosophy (bust of figure on front facade of New York Public Library)
Paul Wayland Bartlett, born New Haven, CT 1865-died Paris, France 1925 · modeled ca. 1915
The full-length statues Philosophy and Poetry stand above the grand entrance of the New York Public Library. Paul Wayland Bartlett modeled six heroic figures for this commission---History and Philosophy, Romance and Religion, Poetry and Drama---to symbolize the different fields of knowledge represented in the library. These tall sculptures, designed to sit on a one-foot-wide shelf far above ground level, were carved in high relief to exaggerate the features of the figures.
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