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Winter

William Rush

American Art

This statue of a shivering child personifies the winter season and was once part of an outdoor decorative scheme for an icehouse on a Philadelphia estate.

Like many solid wood sculptures, it exhibits radial cracking, most notably on the back. This type of cracking runs perpendicular to the tree’s growth rings. It occurs because wood can absorb and lose moisture, and has distinct physical properties along its different planes of direction. As relative humidity or the amount of moisture in the air changes, the wood will expand and contract differently in these directions, leading to a buildup of stresses in the wood and eventual cracking.
MEDIUM Pine
DATES 1810
DIMENSIONS 28 1/16 x 21 x 9in. (71.3 x 53.3 x 22.9cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 42.242
CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Carved statue of a seated child wrapped in a cloak; figure huddles with cold and turns slightly to the proper right; holds cloak below neck with crossed arms; some curly hair peeks out from under the hood; proper right leg is bare and crossed over the covered proper left leg; figure seated on round base that looks like a rock. Condition: Good, some cracks throughout the sculpture.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION William Rush (American, 1756-1833). Winter, 1810. Pine, 28 1/16 x 21 x 9in. (71.3 x 53.3 x 22.9cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund , 42.242. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 42.242_view1_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 42.242_view1_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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