Artwork Details
- Title
- Law, Prosperity and Power
- Artist
- Daniel Chester French (1850 – 1931)
- Year
- 1880, installed 1882, relocated 1939
- Medium
- Marble, on concrete base
- Dimensions
- Height 15'10", width 16', depth 5' (base height 3', width 5'7", depth 5')
Artwork Description
*Please note that the grounds are enclosed where the sculpture is located
Daniel Chester French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and was a member of an established New England family. When he was 23 years old, he created a highly praised Minute Man for Concord, Massachusetts. After completing his studies in Europe, French received a number of federal commissions.
Among French’s early commissions were lofty allegorical works that described the functions of federal buildings. Law, Prosperity and Power, commissioned for and installed atop the U.S. Post Office and Federal Building in Philadelphia, idealized the government in a lyrical form and material – marble – inspired by the artist’s sojourn in Florence. When the building was destroyed in 1937, the work was given to the city and relocated to Fairmount Park with the help of Association for Public Art (then known as the Fairmount Park Art Association).
French is best known in Philadelphia for his statue of General Ulysses S. Grant, a later work in the artist’s mature style.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned for the U.S. Post Office and Federal Building in Philadelphia
Owned by the City of Philadelphia