Plaster mother mold with inner rubber mold and plaster core. Written on mold is "Baby Baboon, Stall A". Mold is held together with plastic zip tie.
Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Figure sculpture, American--20th century
Full-scale bronze of Persephone with green patina. Sculpture sits in the sculpture garden. Depicts a nude woman on her proper left knee with her hands raised at head level. She has long braids. In Greek mythology, Persephone was the goddess of spring. She was abducted by Hades (known to the Romans as Pluto) and taken to the Underworld to be his wife. Her mother, Demeter (Ceres), the goddess of agriculture, searched the earth for her. Demeter finally found her, but since Persephone had eaten the seed of a pomegranate Hades offered her while in the Underworld, she could not return to the land of the living. Demeter was so upset she refused to bless the harvest. This left the earth sterile. However, she made a compromise with Hades. Persephone was allowed to spend half of the year with her mother in the upper world and the other half of the year with Hades in the Underworld. The purpose of this myth is to explain the death and regeneration of the earth each year. In one display case you will find the small scale BACCHANTE of 1935. Fredericks enlarged this sculpture in 1972 when Henry Booth, the son of George Gough Booth who was the founder of the Cranbrook Educational Community, expressed interest in placing the sculpture at Cranbrook. Since a Bacchante was a female follower of the Roman wine god Bacchus, this name was not considered appropriate for a public sculpture. Cast in 1988
Persephone, SVSU Sculpture Garden
Persephone, Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Persephone Brookgreen Gardens, SC
Persephone, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Small-scale plaster cast painted green of Persephone. She is on a black painted wood base with a block of wood supporting her proper right leg under the knee. Depicts a nude woman on her proper left knee with her hands raised at head level. She has long braids. The 1932 bronze won first prize for the Dance International 1900-1937, "Exhibit of Arts Relating to the Dance", Rockefeller Center, New York. Bronze is 12 1/2 inches and is in the collection of the Cranbrook Art Museum. Other works of Persephone (Bacchante) include: Persephone (Bacchante) 1972, bronze, 6 feet, Greek Theatre Cranbrook Educational Community, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Persephone (Bacchante) 1972, plaster, 6 feet, MFSM Enlarged from small scale model, 1932
Bacchante (Persephone), Mold, [Plaster and Rubber]
Plaster mother mold with inner rubber mold and plaster core. Written on mold is "Stall A Persephone" Mold is held together with plastic zip tie.
Back of the head from the plasteline model of "The Friendly Dragon"
Animal sculpture--20th century. Artists' studios--United States. Dragons in art. Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998
â€œI did â€¦ a dragon; I called it The Friendly Dragon. The architect said he didn't think he would use it because he said the children would be frightened of a dragon. But children love dragons and it's not an ugly dragon, it's a friendly dragon with a big smile and it's cozy and you can sit on its back on those humps on its back. It's just that he never was a child, I guess, so he doesn't know. So they put up a thing, a structural beam thing. I've never seen a child near it so maybe they didn't get the audience that they wanted really. I think maybe I'll do that Dragon. I like dragons anyway, they're special.â€ (Marshall Fredericks, from a 1981 interview with Joy Colby, The Detroit News art critic.) Throughout his long career, Fredericks often returned to his joyful and whimsical work that involved animals. â€œThe Friendly Dragon, cast twice in 1991, as a pair for the Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a childâ€™s magical dream. Like a Maurice Sendak illustration (popular author of Where the Wild Things Are), Fredericksâ€™ dragon presents a danger that has become approachable, a wild animal that has become as friendly as a pet.â€ (Marshall M. Fredericks, Sculptor, p. 14)
Marshall M. Fredericks Papers Series V, Box 13 Folder 18
Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Archives.
Back view of angel clay model head for "God on the Rainbow"
Marshall M. Fredericks Papers Series II, Box 17, Folder 8
Back view of clay angel shoulders and head for "God on the Rainbow"
Baldwin Public Library - Limestone "Siberian Ram"
Animal sculpture--20th century. Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998 Limestone sculpture Outdoor sculpture--United States. Public sculpture, American
Fredericks first completed Siberian Ram in 1941, but a 24-inch tall sculpture installed in 1966 at the rose garden of the Henry Ford estate in Dearborn, Michigan is the first documented bronze cast. Fredericks carved a Siberian Ram in limestone on commission for the Birmingham-Bloomfield Bank which in 1972 donated the 30-inch tall stone sculpture to the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham, Michigan. In the late 1980s, Fredericks made molds from that sculpture and cast bronzes for his personal collection and for the museum. He created the 9-inch tall reduction in the mid-1990s.
Marshall M. Fredericks Papers Series V, Box 19 Folder 34
Use of this image requires permission from the creator.
Mold for clown ball. Mold is in two pieces with a string tied in the middle to hold the two halves together.