Artwork Details
- Title
- The Great Mother and The Great Doctor
- Artist
- Waldemar Raemisch (1888 – 1955)
- Year
- 1955; installed 1956; relocated 2008
- Medium
- Bronze, on concrete bases
- Dimensions
- Maximum height 11'4″; width of each group approximately 20′; depth 6'6" (bases 3′)
Artwork Description
Created by Waldemar Raemisch to represent the “spirit of juveniles,” The Great Mother and The Great Doctor were originally commissioned for the Youth Study Center, a juvenile detention facility. The sculptures were moved to the School of the Future in West Fairmount Park in August 2008.
In each of the two groups a seated, central figure is surrounded by idealized compositions of children and attending adults. The central figures symbolize a universal Mother and a Doctor or Healer, respectively – allegorical expressions of the care, comfort, and guidance that adults can offer to children. From a distance each group blends into a whole, almost as if the figures were carved in relief on the building itself. Raemisch also created The Preacher for the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial.
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 by the City of Philadelphia, Department of Public Property
Owned by the City of Philadelphia