MARTINY, Philippe or Philip

Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin 1858 - New York City, New York, United States 1927

L'Electricité

Electricity

1905

granite

statue

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain

New York, New York, Surrogate's Courthouse, or Hall of Records

www.nycourts.gov/courts/1jd/surrogates

Provenance

• Reade Street façade of the New York Surrogate's Courthouse, chief cornice
• Wikipedia, accessed October 14, 2013:
• The well-proportioned seven-story, steel-framed building (built 1899-1907, architects: John R. Thomas; Horgan & Slattery) is faced with granite from Hallowell, Maine, and contains elaborate marble interiors. The three-part Chambers Street facade features a triple-arched main entrance centered along the two-story base, above which is centered a three-story Corinthian colonnade topped by a cornice, a sixth story, another cornice and a mansard roof.
• It was designed to be fireproof, in order to safely house the city's paper records. The Beaux Arts exterior features fifty-four sculptures by prize-winning artists Philip Martiny and Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, representing both allegorical figures ? such as New York in Its Infancy, New York in Revolutionary Times, Philosophy, Law, and the seasons ? and eminent figures from the city's past, including Peter Stuyvesant, DeWitt Clinton, David Pietersen De Vries, and mayors Caleb Heathcoate, Abram Stevens Hewitt, Philip Hone, Cadwallader David Colden, and James Duane.
• The building has suffered from few alterations over the years, aside from the removal of some Martiny statues facing Centre Street when that street was widened in 1961. Those statues, Authority and Justice, are nearby at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street.

Bibliography

• 1909 Catalogue
  Catalogue of the works of art belonging to the City of New York, prepared and issued by the Art commission of the City of New York, New York, 1909, p. 119-126 (available online: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000450414)

Related works

• Works by Philip Martiny on the Surrogate's Courthouse's facades (28 total):
  - on Chambers Street facade, entrance: New York in Its Infancy (1907), New York in Revolutionary Times (1907),
  - on Chambers Street facade, chief cornice, from left to right: standing statues of David Petersen de Vries (1904), Caleb Heathcote (1904), De Witt Clinton (1905), Abram Stevens Hewitt (1906), Philip Hone (1906), Peter Stuyvesant (1905), Cadwallader David Colden (1905), James Duane (1906)
  - on Center Street entrance (transferred in 1961 to New York County Courthouse): Justice (1906), Authority (1906),
  - on Center Street facade, on chief cornice, from left to right: allegorical statues of Chemistry (1905), Medicine (1905), Industry (1905), Commerce (1905), Navigation (1905), Industrial Art (1905), Music (1905), Architecture (1905),
  - on Reade Street elevation, chief cornice, from left to right: Justice (1905), Electricity (1905), Printing (1905), Force (1905), Tradition (1905), Iron Age (1905), Painting (1905), Sculpture (1905).

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