Leaping Gazelle [Plaster]

Leaping Gazelle [Plaster]

Animal sculpture--20th century

Leaping Gazelle, 1936
Plaster original

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall M. Fredericks
1991.015

In 1936, Fredericks won a National Award Competition to design a fountain for the Levi L. Barbour Memorial, located on Belle Isle, an island park in the city of Detroit, Michigan. The bronze Leaping Gazelle is mounted 16 feet high on a granite pedestal in a fountain basin. Four small carved granite animals: otter, grouse, hawk, and rabbit surround the gazelle. This was the first commission Fredericks received and it initiated his career as a distinguished public sculptor.

Fredericks said:
"I used this gazelle which to me has always been, in my mind at least, sort of the perfection of the four-legged. It's such a clean animal, it's herbivorous, it's the fastest animal alive, it's not a hunter, it's just a marvelous expression of the animal kingdom, and the lines of it are so beautiful and it just seemed to set itself up as a natural in that marvelous natural environment which Belle Isle was at that time, it was beautiful."

The Leaping Gazelle is one of the most duplicated of Fredericks' sculptures. It can be found at numerous locations; nationally and internationally, including Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Detroit Zoological Park, Detroit, Michigan; Gardens Mall, West Palm Beach, Florida; and Brookgreen Gardens, at Pawley's Island, South Carolina, where it was one of four purchase prize winners of a nationwide open sculpture competition in 1972.

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

1936

Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum

Sculpture

University Center (Mich.)

86.5" x 53" x 40"

Plaster full-scale

1991.015

Main Exhibit Gallery

1987 November, 30 Gift to Museum and SVSU Board of Control

From Jennifer Lentz (Collection Documentation Intern 1991-1992)
Memo dated February 12, 1992:

"RE: Leaping Gazelle at Marselisborg Castle

I asked Molly if this bronze cast from 190 is accessible to the public. She said it is not. Marselisborg Castle is the summer residence of the Queen on Denmark."


MF archives:
-First commissioned work he was paid to do in the late 1930s
-located in the formal garden west of the Conservatory.
-in 1935 a national competition was held for the design of a suitable tribute to Mr. Levi Barbour, a leading citizen of Detroit. Barbour, also an attorney and philanthropist, led the fight to purchase Belle Isle for a city park. He willed $20,000 to the city "for the purpose of erecting some statue, monument, or other permanent structure on Belle Isle, as I had much to do with procuring the island for a park" Out of 26 models submitted by local and national sculptors for this contest, "Leaping Gazelle" was chosen in 1936.
-winning this contest helped to launch his career as a public sculptor and made his name know as a sculptor
-the gazelle is in a position called "wheeling;" that is when an animal is being pursued by a predator they stop and change direction to loose the predator
-the gazelle is not native to Michigan so he made four animals that are native to Belle Island to be placed around the gazelle on Belle Isle: otter, grouse, hawk, rabbit
-the inscription on the rim of the lower basin quotes Barbour: "A continual hint to my fellow citizens to devote themselves to the benefit and pleasure of the public."
-This fountain is aligned with the Conservatory's central building whose circular shape is repeated in the fountain's two stepped basins. A spirited bronze gazelle, its head thrown back, leaps off a stylized rock at the fountain's apex. At the corners of the base of the pedestal are the four animals, native to Belle Isle, carved in granite.
-when asked why a gazelle, Marshall claimed "a wounded or leaping antelope attempts to show the beauty in the excitement, or even death, of nature." He also stated for the Detroit News at the dedication on June 25, 1937 "to me it is the most beautiful animal in nature, particularly in that position." (Michael Panhorst)
- it is placed central in the museum as it was a centrally important piece to him
-a bronze of gazelle is found on Marshall's grave in Greenwood Cemetery, Birmingham, MI
-it was one of four purchase prize winners of a nationwide open sculpture competition sponsored by Brookgreen Gardens in 1972. Brookgreen Gardens American Achievement Award, designed by Fredericks in 1986, utilizes the gazelle theme as does Brookgreen Gardens' membership Medal 1977-78.

MF, Sculptor copy:
The commission that started Fredericks on his real career came when he won a national competition for the design of a fountain to be erected on Belle Isle, a city of Detroit park on an island in the river between the United States and Canada. The central figure of the Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain is a leaping gazelle, in bronze on a granite pedestal, the whole sixteen feet high, rising from a basin into which jets of water fall, forming a circular screen of water. A circular wall of verdure surrounds the fountain; its four entrances or axes are marked by four small carved granite beasts and birds positioned in the falling water. The clear, strong silhouette of the gazelle, the stylized modeling of the smaller animals, and the appeal of the animal subject to visitors of every age combined to form the happy debut of a monumental sculptor.

Molly Barth copy:
The Leaping Gazelle in the center of the gallery is the plaster model for the Levi L. Barbour Memorial on Belle Isle in the Detroit River, between Detroit and Windsor. It was a national competition, and Fredericks went up against some very famous sculptors, Paul Manship, and others, and he won it. It started his career as a monumental sculptor. The gazelle, as he has captured it, it is elegant and beautiful, as it rears its head back. The gazelle was cast in bronze, and mounted on a granite pedestal with a fluted edge at the very top of the pedestal. Fredericks wanted to depict the animals that you would find on Belle Isle, so he added four small animals: the otter, with it's dinner it has just caught; the grouse; the rabbit with its flopped over ears and cotton tail on a cabbage, and the hawk. These were all carved in granite for Belle Isle. The sculpture was dedicated in 1936, when Fredericks was just a young man. It really started his career as a monumental sculptor. A bronze cast of the Leaping Gazelle is located on campus. It was donated. It's also a fountain. Then at Brookgreen Gardens, in South Carolina, they have the whole fountain with The Leaping Gazelle and the four animals there. There's also The Leaping Gazelle, only The Leaping Gazelle it was put up as a memorial in Norway for the Americans and the Norwegians; and also just dedicated last year, was The Leaping Gazelle, just The Leaping Gazelle, in bronze, down in Florida in the gardens in West Palm Beach. Then also, Fredericks does have a Leaping Gazelle in his back yard, in his garden. [Marseilles Borg also.]

These four large sculptures surrounding The Leaping Gazelle Fountain, are not part of The Leaping Gazelle Fountain. They are The Four Animal Kingdoms. Each represents a different kingdom. You have the Bird Kingdom, with the swan, the Fish Kingdom, the Mammal Kingdom, with the seal, and then the Reptile Kingdom with the crocodile. Each one has a female figure entwined, wrapping the animal and the human figure around each other. These exist nowhere else but in the gallery, in the plaster. They were intended to be carved in stone. You can see how the shapes are contained within the contours or outline of the sculpture. One form flows into the other. Sculpture entices you to walk around them trying to see the detail in each one. Notice the way the wings of the swan wrap themselves around the perimeter of the sculpture. The fish, look for their fins, and the crocodile's tail wraps around.

From 1995 Mary Iorio of Cranbrook, interview with Fredericks: Fredericks said it is, "the epitome of art deco design."

From the MFSM Archives (originally found: series VI, subseries scrapbook, 1935-39):
To the Levi L. Barbour Memorial Committee
This model is submitted by Marshall M. Fredericks
Instructor in sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art

This fountain, the model of which is in one-ninth scale, is to be at the widest point twenty five feet in diameter. The large scale model of the antelope is one-third size and the one of the weasel approximately actual size.

The material will be polished Rosetta Black Granite from northern Minnesota with the five figures in verde antique green bronze.

The central figure showing the wounded or leaping antelope attempts to show the beauty iin the excitement, or even death, of nature; while the four smaller figures of the weasel, hawk, squirrel and pheasant, all native to Belle Isla and Michigan, represent both the predatory and non-predatory, trying to show the natural beauty in both.

Water will spray in fine streams from the outside edge of the smaller basin into the larger.

The memorial plaque of bronze, also, with suitable inscription, will be placed on the rim of the main basin.