Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980)
The Star
inscribed 'HARRIET W FRISHMUTH 1918' (along the base) and inscribed 'GORHAM Co FOUNDERS / Q505' (on the base) and numbered '#173' (on the base)
bronze with brown patina
19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm.) high, on a 3/4 in. (1.9 cm.) high black marble base
Modeled in 1918; cast circa 1928.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, New York, cast with royalties paid to the artist, circa 1928.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
By descent within the family of the above.
Sale, John Toomey Auction Gallery, Oak Park, Illinois, December 5, 2004, lot 462, sold by the above.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Casting Records of Statuary and Small Bronzes Owned by Gorham, Q Numbers Assigned to Bronzes, 1905-1970, New York, 1918, p. 29, no. Q505, another example listed.
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Photograph Files of Statuary and Small Bronzes, New York, 1918, n.p., no. Q505, another example illustrated. (as Star)
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Records of Royalties Paid to Sculptors for Casting Their Works, New York, 1928, n.p., no. 173. (as Star)
The Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Famous Small Bronzes, New York, 1928, pp. 34-35, another example illustrated.
F.S. Vincent, 'Atalanta Loveliest of Fabled Beauties?,' Greenwood Commonwealth, November 23, 1929, vol. 15, no. 72, p. 5, another example illustrated.
Los Angeles Museum, Olympic Competition and Exhibition of Art: Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, California, 1932, p. 62, no. 1037, another example listed.
A.V. Masters, 'Female Rodin of America: At 87, Harriet Frishmuth Has Laid Aside Sculpture Tools,' Bridgeport Sunday Post, June 23, 1968, vol. LXXIX, no. 23, p. E5, another example listed.
C.N. Aronson, Sculptured Hyacinths, New York, 1973, pp. 101-2, 104-5, 206, another example illustrated. (as Star)
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Houston, Texas, 1989, pp. 35, 38-39, 42, other examples illustrated.
K. Ahrens, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: Small Bronzes, exhibition catalogue, Athens, Ohio, 2001, pp. 3-4, 70, no. 7, another example illustrated.
J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, New York, 2006, pp. 20, 30-31, 66-67, 79n.80, 99, 106, 107n.10, 143-45, 148, 220, 237, 277, no. 1918:3, another example illustrated.

There are 345 known examples of this version of The Star that were produced, 344 of which, including the present work, were cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, Bronze Division.

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth's The Star is an exquisitely meditative example in Frishmuth''s oeuvre that beautifully expresses her personal notions of aspiration. For The Star, Frishmuth used her favorite model, Desha Delteil (née Podgorska, 1900-1980) and the two explored more restrained movements for the finished composition. The figure is portrayed standing upright with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her eyes gazing upward as she extends her left arm toward the sky. Frishmuth contains both emotion and passion within the figure, resulting in an expression that is far more psychological than physical. In an interview that Frishmuth gave later in life, the artist explained that The Star was a three-dimensional expression of a philosophy her mother often stressed, 'You must reach for the unattainable' and went on to remark that the figure's 'Feet are tight on the ground but she is stretching upward towards the star.' (A.V. Masters, 'Female Rodin of America: At 87, Harriet Frishmuth Has Laid Aside Sculpture Tools,' Bridgeport Sunday Post, June 23, 1968, p. E5.) The reserved emotions and aspirations portrayed by the figure have also been interpreted as a manifestation of Frishmuth's response to America's entry into World War I in April 1917, further accounting for the sculpture's success. (J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, New York, 2006, p. 30) The Star was commercially successful for Frishmuth, so much so that it became her second-largest edition, just behind The Vine modeled several years later in 1921, with 345 casts produced through the mid-1950s.