The Fox and the Crow by Paul Manship

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, the word is Object. This bronze sculpture is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and I fell in love with it while there visiting last month.

I wouldn’t call it a “found object,” because it’s on display for all to admire! But when I thought about the challenge topic, the lovely pieces of artwork at the gallery came to mind as objects of great beauty.

By Paul Manship, born St. Paul, MN 1885 and died in New York City in 1966, this sculpture is a detail from two bronze gates he made in 1952 for the William Church Osborn Memorial Playground in New York City’s Central Park. “Manship illustrates stories from Aesop’s fables. The Fox and the Crow memorializes that ‘flatterers are not to be trusted.'”

The playground gates have recently been removed from Central Park for restoration, but they must be impressive in person, as this detail at the museum is striking even at a smaller size.

If you are ever visiting Washington, D.C., I highly recommend the National Portrait Gallery. While it does hold a vast collection of presidential portraits that is inspirational in its own right, it’s also filled with many other types of artwork and genres. I spent more than four hours roaming around and barely scratched the surface.