Night, Clock Figure from Pennsylvania Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC
American Art
On View: Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
This slumbering female figure once stood beside a huge clock above an entrance to the original Pennsylvania Station. The vast complex, completed in 1910, was designed by Charles Follen McKim and modeled after the Roman Baths of Caracalla. Each of four pedestrian entryways to the terminal was surmounted by a clock, flanked by two allegorical figures representing time. Day held a sunflower, and the hooded Night, seen here, bears a drooping poppy. The terminal building was demolished in 1963. This sculpture was retrieved from landfill in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
COMMISSIONED BY
Pennsylvania Railroad (Alexander Cassatt, President)
MEDIUM
Tennessee marble
DATES
ca. 1910
DIMENSIONS
132 x 86 x 42 in. (335.3 x 218.4 x 106.7 cm)
Other (with base): 152 x 86 x 52 in. (386.1 x 218.4 x 132.1 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
66.250.1
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Lipsett Incorporated
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Clock figure. Semi-nude allegorical figure depicting night. The female figure is draped in the enveloping cloak of night, with eyes closed and an oriental poppy drooping from her hand. The figure of night and the figure of day (symbolized by sunflowers) flanked the clock, which was encircled by a laurel wreath. There were four identical clocks on the exterior facades of Penn Station.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
CAPTION
Adolph Alexander Weinman (American, born Germany, 1870–1952). Night, Clock Figure from Pennsylvania Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC, ca. 1910. Tennessee marble, 132 x 86 x 42 in. (335.3 x 218.4 x 106.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lipsett Incorporated, 66.250.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 66.250.1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 66.250.1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2004
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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