Daily Photo Stream: Central Park

Showing posts with label Central Park. Show all posts

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Naumburg Bandshell

Naumburg Bandshell by Tachau and Vaught, 1923
North end of Mall, Central Park
New York, September 2007

“In 1923, the acoustically outdated Bandstand was replaced by the Naumburg Bandshell. It encouraged new audiences for classical music in the informal and beautiful setting of Central Park. Today, it is the Park's only Neo-Classical building, thoughtfully centered and nestled between the two projecting pergola viewing points. It admirably reflects the architect William G. Tachau's own Ecole des Beaux-Arts classicist and historicist training. Such greats as Irving Berlin, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington have entertained at the Bandshell, as well as Victor Herbert, whose statue is just a few steps away from that of Beethoven. Those statues, as well as the other 49 statues throughout the Park, are given a cleaning every summer by the Central Park Conservancy. The Conservancy also built and maintains the beautiful and unique wooden benches surrounding the nearby trees, based on an original bench design introduced to Central Park in the mid-19th century to protect the young elms as park-goers gathered under their shade to enjoy classical music performances.” (Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park Conservancy)

“The design of the Bandshell has historic precedents in the Pantheon of Rome, or more closely, the Imperial Russian pleasure park’s pavilion at Gatchina Palace, by Vincenzo Brenna, his ‘Eagle Pavilion’ of the 1790’s, and the later work of the architect F.G.P. Poccianti, his ‘Cisternone’ at Livorno of 1829-42.” (Detailed History, Naumburg Bandshell)

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Burnett Memorial Fountain

Burnett Memorial Fountain designed by Aymar Embury II
Statues by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, 1936
Conservatory Garden, Central Park
New York, September 2008

“This fountain honors children’s book author Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett. Friends of Burnett wanted to memorialize her after her death in 1924 with a storytelling area in Central Park. The Conservatory Garden, which reopened to the public in 1937, was chosen as the perfect site for the memorial. Some refer to the two figures, a reclining boy playing the flute and a young girl holding the bowl, as effigies of Mary and Dickon, the main characters in The Secret Garden. The bowl is a functioning birdbath where small birds drink during three seasons of the year. The sculpture stands on the edge of a small concrete pool that features a variety of water lilies. It was one of the earliest statues restored by Central Park Conservancy in the 1980s.” (Burnett Fountain, Central Park Conservancy)

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Falconer

“The Falconer” by George Blackall Simonds, 1871
Terrace Drive, Central Park
New York, September 2008

“The Falconer is a bronze sculpture in Central Park, New York City by English sculptor George Blackall Simonds. It depicts a man in a theatrical version of Elizabethan dress standing on a high granite pedestal, releasing a hunting falcon. The Falconer, cast in 1871 in Florence, was erected in 1875 on a prominent rock overlooking the confluence of Terrace Drive and another carriage drive near the West 72nd Street drive entrance. The growth of surrounding trees has partly obscured the site. The sculpture has a history of being vandalized. The original falcon was stolen, and in the 1960s the New York City Parks Department commissioned their employee and sculptor, Joel Rudnick, to mold a new falcon which now sits on The Falconer's arm. This new falcon is substantially different from the original falcon.” (The Falconer, Wikipedia)

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Counter Clockwise

Sign on the jogging track around the
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir
Central Park
New York, September 2008

“President Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis (for whom the reservoir was named in 1994) have all run on the 1.58-mile track. For years, an unsightly seven-foot-high chain-link fence obscured the view. But when scuba divers discovered a piece of the original fence at the bottom of the reservoir, Central Park Conservancy commissioned a steel fence with cast-iron ornamentation, closely resembling the original. The current fence was completed in 2003, stands four feet high, and has opened up breathtaking views of the Park and surrounding cityscapes.” (Reservoir, Central Park Conservancy)

Friday, July 3, 2015

Columbus on the Mall

Christopher Columbus by Jeronimo Suñol, Central Park, New York

Christopher Columbus by Jeronimo Suñol, 1894
The Mall, Central Park
New York, September 2007

“Another statue of Columbus, by Spanish sculptor Jeronimo Sunol, was unveiled on May 12, 1894 on the Mall. The Russo monument shows Columbus looking outward with his hand on the tiller of his ship, while the Sunol monument portrays a more spiritual explorer with his outstretched arm and eyes looking upward to heaven in gratitude for his successful voyage. Sunol modified this sculpture from one he had done in 1885 in the Plaza de Colon in Madrid.” (Christopher Columbus, Central Park Conservancy)

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Bethesda Terrace

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain
Mid-Park at 72nd Street, Central Park
New York, September 2007

“Bethesda Terrace is considered the heart of Central Park. In their original plan, Park designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux envisioned a sweeping Promenade (the Mall) that led to a grand terrace overlooking the Lake. The magnificent carvings represent the four seasons and, on the side facing the Mall, the times of day. Today, Central Park Conservancy employs a sculptor to care for the sandstone carvings and sculpture and a zone gardener and their crew to take care of the landscapes. In the summer, aquatic plantings such as water lilies and lotus are placed in the fountain, reviving a 19th century tradition.” (Bethesda Terrace, Central Park Conservancy)

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Robert Burns

Robert Burns by John Steell, 1871
East Side at 65th Street on The Mall
Literary Walk, Central Park
New York, September 2007

“Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scotland's national poet, is most famous for his song Auld Lang Syne. He is placed on the Mall across from Sir Walter Scott, another Scottish literary figure. Burns is depicted sitting on a tree stump and his poem to his love, Mary, is written on a scroll at his feet.” (Robert Burns, Central Park Conservancy)

Friday, March 15, 2013

Balto

Statue of Siberian Husky Balto by Frederick Roth, 1925
Near the Tisch Children's Zoo, Central Park
New York, September 2008

“Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of
the sled dogs
that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice,
across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from
Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the
Winter of 1925.
Endurance - Fidelity - Intelligence”