Artwork Details
- Title
- Sundial
- Artist
- Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 – 1945)
- Year
- 1903; installed 1905
- Location
- Horticulture Center grounds (Belmont Avenue and North Horticultural Drive, West Fairmount Park)
- Medium
- Limestone and bronze, on marble base
- Dimensions
- Height 4'1″, width 6'6", depth 6'4", diameter 4'2" (base height 6")
Artwork Description
This Art Nouveau-style sundial sits atop a sculpted limestone base representing the four seasons. Spring holds a rose; Summer carries poppies; Autumn wears grapes in her hair; and Winter has a pine branch. Each season foresees the next by turning her head while holding an apple bough aloft, suggesting nature’s bounty. The signs of the zodiac surround the bronze dial.
Sundial was given to the park by Association for Public Art (then known as Fairmount Park Art Association). Alexander Stirling Calder, the second of three generations of the famed family of sculptors, is also responsible for the Swann Memorial Fountain and the Shakespeare Memorial, both in Logan Square.
Artwork Credits
Gift of Mrs. Charles P. Turner, through Association for Public Art (formerly Fairmount Park Art Association) to the City of Philadelphia
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
JED PERL is the art critic for The New Republic and a former contributing editor at Vogue. He recently published the first biography of Alexander “Sandy” Calder, Alexander Stirling Calder’s son.
SUSAN KAY WEILER is a landscape architect and partner at OLIN. She is a prolific designer, educator, speaker and writer and serves on the Board of the Association for Public Art.
Producer: Rachel James