Memorial Day: Washington at Union Square, Bethesda Terrace, Irises

Top: Brown's Washington at Union Square (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan, Essay 13) - finally, a good shot of the west side, taken on a cloudy day (no harsh shadows) and with a long enough zoom that I could back up so his arm doesn't cover his face.

Middle: Balustrades and arches at Central Park's Bethesda Terrace. The detail and the variation always amazes me.

Bottom: Irises from someone else's garden. (If I had a green thumb, it would be made out of patinated copper.)

Abraham Lincoln: OMOM Essay 15

"About the Sculpture" discusses why Saint Gaudens's Standing Lincoln in Chicago is superior as a work of art to Henry Kirke Brown's Lincoln in Union Square. I'm particularly happy to have been given permission to print a photo of the Saint Gaudens Lincoln taken by David Finn, who I've decided (after years of compulsively browsing art books) is my favorite sculpture photographer. Meeting Mr. Finn was one of the few joys of the two long years I spent seeking a publisher interested in a book on outdoor sculpture in New York.
I had seen occasional references to President Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, but hadn't learned enough to decide whether it was a justified wartime measure or a breach of civil liberties. While researching Lincoln for Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan I investigated the habeas corpus issue further, and ended up writing "About the Subject" on one specific case of it in 1863: Lincoln's treatment of Clement Vallandigham, a Northern politician who was a very vocal Confederate sympathizer. The Vallandigham case was one of the inspirations for a famous short story you may recall from your high-school days: Edward Everett Hale's "The Man Without a Country."

George Washington at Union Square: OMOM Essay 13

I've discussed the Washington at Union Square at length in "Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love," The Objective Standard 1:2 (Summer 2006). In Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan, I focus on identifying the theme (a process I first mentioned in Essay 5, Charging Bull), and again address the question of what an artist achieves by "quoting" other sculptures. In this case, the sculptor quoted an equestrian portrait of Emperor Marcus Aurelius that has stood in Rome for millennia - largely because medieval Christians assumed it represented Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity (A.D. 312).

"About the Subject" describes Washington's ceremonial return to New York in 1783, after seven years of British occupation. For over a century that event was celebrated every November 25 as "Evacuation Day." The New-York Historical Society's website has an 1883 illustration of the flagstaff incident referred to in this essay.

Most photos of this Washington are taken from the east side. In the photo above, you can see why: if you're close enough on the west side to take a photo without a telephoto lens, Washington's arm blocks his face. If I backed off 10-20 yards, I could probably get a decent photo of that side using my new 12x optical lens and a tripod. For more on the problems of photographing sculpture, see my "Completely Unprofessional Notes on Taking Photos of Outdoor Sculpture" on www.ForgottenDelights.com.