Inwood – Washington Heights Memorial

  • Sculptor: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
  • Date: 1921
  • Location: Broadway and St. Nicholas Ave., between 167th and 168th Streets.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Inwood-Washington Heights War Memorial, 1921. Photo copyright © 2019 Dianne L. Durante

On this memorial and others from World War I, see this page and this one.

January 9, 1875: Birth of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Whitney (1875-1942) trained in the classical sculpture tradition, although she was also strongly influenced by Auguste Rodin. During World War I she established a hospital for war victims in Juilly, France, and her months there inspired many sculptures of soldiers with war injuries, executed (like this one) in a loose, impressionistic style, with minimal attention to surface texture and detail.

These Whitney sculptures are part of a trend in early 20th-century New York sculpture. Portraits of outstanding military leaders such as Sherman and Farragut cease to be produced, replaced by anonymous, often wounded figures. Compare Karl Ilava’s 107th Infantry Memorial, Fifth Ave. at 67th St. For more on this change of subject, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.

Whitney’s other sculptures include the Titanic Memorial of 1914 in Washington, D.C., whose pose inspired a moment in the movie Titanic; Buffalo Bill, 1924, at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Cody, Wyoming; and Manhattan’s own Peter Stuyvesant, 1936.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, used some of her inherited wealth to support young artists. She also contributed funds for the 1913 Armory Show, which introduced modernism to America. (One of the most notorious exhibits was Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase.) When the Metropolitan Museum refused Whitney’s gift of 500-odd modernist pieces she used them as the core of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which opened its doors in 1931.

More

  • For more on Whitney see pp. 169-176 in Conner and Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, which has fantastic photos by David Finn. If you don’t like Whitney’s work, the book includes works by MacMonnies, Frishmuth, Huntington, and others that are marvelous.
  • In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
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