Penelope Jencks
Penelope Jencks (born 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA) is an American sculptor, a graduate of Boston University (BFA, 1958). Her public works include a statue of the historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1982), on Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Robert Frost Sculpture (2007) at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. She is best known, however, for her statue of Eleanor Roosevelt (1996) in New York City.
Eleanor Roosevelt Monument[]
The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, located in New York City's Riverside Park, is said to be the first monument dedicated to an American president's wife. Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the time) gave the keynote address at the monument's October 1996 dedication.[1]
The statue, the boulder on which it leans, and the foot stone on which it rests, all sculpted by Jencks, form the centerpiece of a heavily planted circular memorial designed by the landscape architects Bruce Kelly and David Varnell. The architect Michael Dwyer designed inscriptions in the surrounding granite pavement, including a quotation from Roosevelt's 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights, and a bronze tablet, located in the planting bed, summarizing her achievements.[2]
Gallery[]
Penelope Jencks's statue of Eleanor Roosevelt seen from the south.
The statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, the boulder, and the footstone, sculpted by Penelope Jencks.
Eleanor Roosevelt Biographical Plaque, designed by Michael Dwyer.
References[]
- ^ Martin, Douglas (October 5, 1996). "Eleanor Roosevelt Honored in Hometown Today". The New York Times. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^ Jean Parker Phifer, Public Art New York (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).
- American sculptor stubs
- American women sculptors
- Living people
- 1936 births
- Artists from Baltimore
- Sculptors from Maryland
- 20th-century American sculptors
- 20th-century American women artists
- 21st-century American sculptors
- 21st-century American women artists
- Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni