Joy of the Waters (Joie de l'eau)

Harriet Frishmuth’s Joy of the Waters, modeled in 1917, is an elegant and charming sculpture exemplary of the exuberant female nude figures for which the artist is acclaimed. Frishmuth’s desire to portray the “vibrant expression of the female form in self-assured abandon” is embodied in this vivacious bronze cast. (Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, p. 28) Joy of the Waters was conceived in two sizes, the sixty-one inch model produced in 1917 and the forty-four inch model in 1920. The present example of the larger model is from an edition of forty-four, which, considering its size and cost, speaks to Frishmuth’s pride in the model as well as its enthusiastic reception among collectors.

The present cast was owned by Charles and Josephine Aronson, who held a personal friendship with Frishmuth in her later years. Aspiring collectors at the time, in 1958 the Aronsons wrote to the artist after seeing Joy of the Waters in an Erkins Studio catalogue, seeking to acquire smaller-scale works which they could better afford. To their surprise, the artist responded and invited them to her home in Norwalk, Connecticut, beginning a very close friendship. The Aronsons and Frishmuth continued to visit each other for many years, eventually leading Charles to write Sculptured Hyacinths published in 1973. Nearly a decade later, the Aronsons were able to afford a Joy of the Waters of their own (the present work), which they acquired in 1967.