Sketch for "Leaping Gazelle"

Dublin Core

Title

Sketch for "Leaping Gazelle"

Subject

Barbour, Levi L. (Levi Lewis), 1840-1925
Drawing, American--20th century.
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

Description

Pencil on tracing paper
11.5" x 18"

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 Detroit, Michigan. Mounted 16 feet high on a granite pedestal, the bronze sculpture sits in a fountain basin. Four small carved granite animals surround the gazelle.

Fredericks said: “I used this gazelle which to me has always been…sort of the perfection of the four-leggeds. …[I]t’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 [of] Belle Isle.”

Leaping Gazelle is the first commission Fredericks received and it initiated his career as a distinguished public sculptor.

Drawing also includes sketch for "Baboon Fountain (Board of Directors Fountain)" created for the Glass Industries Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Flushing Meadow, New York.

Creator

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

Source

Marshall M. Fredericks Papers
Series VIII, Cabinet 1 Drawer 2 Folder 6

Date

1936

Rights

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

Relation

VIII-01-02-06

Format

image/jpeg

Type

Pencil drawing

Identifier

VIII.1998.001.502

Drawing Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Pencil drawing

Physical Dimensions

11.5" x 18"

Files

Item #6255.jpg

Citation

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998, “Sketch for "Leaping Gazelle",” Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, accessed November 21, 2024, https://omeka.svsu.edu/items/show/6255.