Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980)

Harriet Frishmuth’s Joy of the Waters, modeled in 1920, is an elegant and charming sculpture exemplary of the exuberant female nude figures for which the artist is acclaimed. Frishmuth’s desire to portray the “vibrant expression of the female form in self-assured abandon” is embodied in this vivacious bronze cast. (J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, p. 28) Joy of the Waters was conceived in two sizes, the sixty-one inch model cast in 1917 and the forty-four inch model in 1920. The present work, cast from the smaller model, is one from an edition of fifty-four, which, considering its size and cost, speaks to Frishmuth’s pride in the model as well as its enthusiastic reception among collectors. Frishmuth viewed Joy of the Waters as representative of her artistic capability. She “enjoyed the smaller, slimmer, and even more replicated Joy. She found that in this reduced size the rhythm and spirit of the design were better expressed.” (Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, p. 29)