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• Sculptor: George Blackall Simonds
• Date: 1875
• Medium & size: Bronze, over lifesize, with granite pedestal.
• Location: Central Park, 20 feet or so up on a hill on the south side of the 72nd St. Transverse, near the west side of the Park.

In this week’s post: how to transform beer and cologne into a bronze monument.

George Blackall Simonds, son of a wealthy brewer, grew up with enough money and leisure to train as a sculptor in Dresden, Brussels, and Rome. His roaring lion serves as a memorial to men from Berkshire who died in the Afghan War of 1880. He also immortalized Queen Victoria, looking very grim about her Golden Jubilee in 1887.

In 1901, Simonds stopped sculpting and returned to the family brewery, which he ran for almost three decades.

Simonds loved falconry so much that he held a falcon for his portrait as chairman of the brewery (see above). Long before that, as a young man in Italy, he had sculpted the Falconer. The falcon is about to fly off, but the falconer still holds the jesses tightly in one hand, the hood in the other. For centuries, falconry was a pastime open only to noblemen, which explains why our young man wears aristocratic garments that are 400 years out of date.

Now we’ve dispensed with the beer part. The cologne wafted in from wealthy New Yorker George Kemp. The most popular product sold by Kemp’s company was “Florida Water,” formulated in 1808 and still available today. It was advertised as toilette water, aftershave, and relief for insect bites and frayed nerves. It even promised to make you look younger! Hence the name “Florida water”: Florida is where Ponce de Leon went to seek the Fountain of Youth.

Kemp saw the Falconer in Italy and loved it so much that he offered a copy to the Board of Commissioners of Central Park. The work was set in place in 1875, high on a rock overlooking the Lake. The New York Times complained that it “should most certainly have been placed at least fifteen feet lower than it is.” But the Times also commended the Falconer as “one of the few really artistic statues that have been placed in Central Park.”

More

• For more on Central Park in the 1850s-1870s, see my book Central Park: The Early Years.
• For early images of Central Park, see the pages on this site for through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
• 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.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here.