List of Sculptures in Central Park - Fictional Characters

Fictional Characters

• One large sculpture depicts Alice, from Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The statue is located on East 74th street on the north side of Central Park's Conservatory Water. Alice is pictured sitting on a giant mushroom reaching toward a pocket watch held by the White Rabbit. Peering over her shoulder is the Cheshire cat, flanked on one side by the dormouse, and on the other by Mad Hatter, who in contrast to the calm Alice looks ready to laugh out loud at any moment. Publisher and philanthropist George T. Delacorte Jr. ordered the sculpture from José de Creeft, in honor of Delacorte's late wife, Margarita, and to the enjoyment of the children of New York. Unveiled in 1959, de Creeft's sculpture tries to follow John Tenniel's whimsical Victorian illustrations from the first edition of the book. According to various sources, Alice is said to look like de Creeft's daughter Donna. The Alice in Wonderland project's architects and designers were Hideo Sasaki and Fernando Texidor, who inserted some plaques with inscriptions from the book in the terrace around the sculpture. Margarita's favorite poem, "The Jabberwocky" is also included; chiseled in a granite circle surrounding the sculpture:

The design of the sculpture attracts many children who want to climb its many levels, resulting in the bronze's glowing patina, polished by thousands of tiny hands over the years since the sculpture was unveiled. It was cast at Modern Art Foundry Astoria Queens NY. The sculpture was in the music video of Slick Ricks Children's Story.

• The Angel of the Waters Bethesda Fountain was not in the original "Greensward Plan", developed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux; the architectural middle of the park was called "The Water Terrace", for its placement beside The Lake, but the area became known as Bethesda Terrace after the fountain was unveiled in 1873. At the unveiling ceremony, the artist's brochure quoted a Biblical verse from the Gospel of St. John: Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called… Bethesda…whoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. The fountain was designed and created by Emma Stebbins, who became the first woman to receive a sculptural commission in New York City when she was commissioned to create this fountain. It was designed and created in 1868, but wasn't unveiled until 1873, when the park was officially completed. In 1988 the Central Park Conservancy cleaned, repatinated, and sealed the fountain with a protective coating, and it's washed and waxed annually in order to preserve it. The fountain can be found in the middle of the park, on the north side of 72nd Street.

• Eagles and Prey, designed and created by Christophe Fratin, is the oldest known sculpture in any New York City park. It is made of bronze, and was cast in Paris, France in 1850 and was placed in the park in 1863. The sculpture was donated by Gordon Webster Burnham, who also donated the statue of Daniel Webster, as well as statues in other cities. The monument depicts a goat, wedged accidentally between two rocks, which is about to be devoured by two eagles. Their talons are sunk into the back of the goat as they flap their wings in victory.

• The Indian Hunter (1866) by John Quincy Adams Ward was shown at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 and made the sculptor's reputation. It was the first sculpture by an American sculptor to be sited in Central Park, in 1869; it stands on the pathway west of The Mall, between the Mall and Sheep Meadow, at approximately 66th Street.

• Still Hunt by sculptor Edward Kemeys (1843–1907) was placed in the park in 1883. This bronze sculpture of a crouching cougar waiting to pounce, was created by Edward Kemeys, the famous American sculptor who also created the famous Hudson Bay wolves at the Philadelphia Zoo, and lions at the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Situated on a rock outcrop on the west side of the East Drive at the edge of the Ramble, the crouching animal has scared many joggers as they climb "Cat Hill" (formally Cedar Hill) and approach this life-size and realistic representation. Unlike the traditional sculptures of other animals in the park that sit on a base or pedestal, Kemeys situated his animal directly on the rock ledge. Kemeys was so interested in depicting his animals in a realistic mode that he traveled to the western states to see them in their native habitat.

• The Untermyer Fountain in Conservatory Garden was donated by the family of Samuel Untermyer in 1947. The bronze figures, Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott (1861–1938), were executed in Germany about 1910.