Spirit of the Waters

A study for the Spencer Trask Memorial in Saratoga Springs, New York, this bronze reveals Daniel Chester French’s idealizing approach to commemorative sculpture. In 1913, Katrina Trask commissioned a memorial in the city’s Congress Park in honor of her late husband. French, celebrated for his ability to design civic sculpture that sat harmoniously in its context, proposed this winged female with a bowed head and gently outspread arms. Placed within a large limestone niche at the end of a rectangular reflecting pool, its form would have actively engaged with its architectural setting, responding to the semicircular walls surrounding it. Ultimately, French abandoned this design in favor of a more dynamic composition. He created several versions of this earlier proposal, however, which suggests his dedication to its artistic principles.