There’s an enormous amount of beauty in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, opened in 1910.
But the bronze statue of a girl holding roses in her right hand and a butterfly sundial in her left is an especially captivating sight.
Called “Roses of Yesterday” and created in 1923 by Harriet W. Frishmuth, the five-foot statue fittingly welcomes visitors into the rose garden pavilion.
Frishmuth was a Philadelphia native who came to New York to create art. She had a studio on Sniffen Court, the loveliest alley in Murray Hill.
Tags: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Harriet Frishmuth sculptor, New York artists 1920s, Rose pavilion Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Roses of Yesterday statue, Sniffen Court
Ephemeral New York 
May 15, 2013 at 5:44 am |
So much rich symbolism captured in the statue: a gnomon in the shape of a butterfly, which lives, what, a few glorious weeks, juxtaposed against the ephemerality of the roses, both held by the fleeting, wistful loveliness of youth. Truly an exceptional find.
May 15, 2013 at 2:16 pm |
You summarized it much better than I could. Thank you!
May 16, 2013 at 12:07 am |
From one editor to another, your kind words are appreciated.
May 15, 2013 at 5:17 pm |
Beautiful statue.
May 17, 2013 at 2:03 pm |
I hope they had band-aids available, because that little girl is going to need a dozen or two. 😉
June 19, 2013 at 10:34 pm |
Beautiful bronze. Some book-ends by Harriet Frishmuth came up on Antiques Roadshow last month, too. http://video.pbs.org/video/2365011284/ This may be a pretty valuable piece. Hopefully, the BBG has this one nailed down.