Lot Essay
'Descending Night' and its companion work, 'Rising Day', were originally designed as fountain figures for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California. Atop enormous decorated columns, the pair of plaster figures were installed in the Court of the Universe, designed by the architectural firm, McKim, Mead and White. The building and its courtyard, known as the "meeting place of the hemi-spheres," stood at the northern end of the fairgrounds between the Palace of Agriculture and the Palace of Transportation. Following the exhibition, Weinman reproduced both works in two sizes, one measuring approximately 26 inches tall and the other approximately 57 inches tall.