Detail from Osborne Gates – The Fox and the Crow

Paul Manship, Detail from Osborne Gates--The Fox and the Crow, 1952, bronze, 40 ¹⁄₈ x 41 ¹⁄₂ x 2 in. (102.0 x 105.5 x 5.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Paul Manship, 1966.47.3

Artwork Details

Title: Detail from Osborne Gates – The Fox and the Crow
Artist: Paul Manship
Date: 1952
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 40 ¹⁄₈ x 41 ¹⁄₂ x 2 in. (102.0 x 105.5 x 5.0 cm)
Credit Line: Bequest of Paul Manship
Mediums: bronze
Mediums Description: bronze
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Literature — Aesop — Fox and Crow
Animal — bird — crow
Animal — fox
Object Number: 1966.47.3
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1966.47.3

Artwork Description

This bronze gate was one of six commissioned for the William Church Osborne Memorial Playground in Manhattan’s Central Park. Each panel shows a tale from Aesop’s Fables, a collection of ancient Greek stories that teach moral lessons to schoolchildren. In The Fox and the Crow, the fox flatters the bird in order to make her say "thank you" and drop a piece of cheese from her mouth. The fox immediately gobbles up the food and runs away, leaving the crow to "beware of flattery." Manship connected the animals by an unseen diagonal line stretching from the fox’s empty mouth to the crow's cheese. To communicate the story, however, he included a brief summary in the upper right-hand corner.