David Trujillo
Head of Sale
Lot 78
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth(1880-1980)Pou Pou (Pooh Pooh) 22 3/4in (57.8cm) high
6 October 2022, 10:00 PDT
Los AngelesUS$3,000 - US$5,000
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Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980)
Pou Pou (Pooh Pooh)
cement and industrial paint
22 3/4in (57.8cm) high
Cast in 1941.
cement and industrial paint
22 3/4in (57.8cm) high
Cast in 1941.
Footnotes
Provenance
Charles N. and Josephine R. Aronson, gift from the artist, 1967;
Sale, Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas, April 26, 2007, lot 33282, sold by the above;
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
C.N. Aronson, Sculptured Hyacinths, New York, 1973, pp. 37, 109, 193-5, 216, illustrated.
J. Conner, L.R. Lehmbeck, T. Tolles, F.L. Hohmann III, Captured Motion, The Sculpture of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: A Catalogue of Works, New York, 2006, pp. 268, another example illustrated.
A framed photograph taken by Leja Muray in 1942 of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth with her beloved cat Pou Pou accompanies this lot.
The present sculpture by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth is modeled after her beloved real life cat Pou Pou. Pou Pou was a large male cat that was raised by a friend of Frishmuth's and given to her when the cat was nine years old. Charles N. Aronson notes that Harriet Whitney Frishmuth modeled the present work in clay and had him cast in foundry stone for the cost of forty dollars, remarking that it was the last sculpture that Frishmuth ever made. 1 The Aronsons received the present work as a gift from Frishmuth in 1967 after she decided to move to a new condominium in Heritage Village near Southbury, Connecticut and didn't want to move the stone cat with her. 2
1 C.N. Aronson, Sculptured Hyacinths, New York, 1973, p. 195.
2 Aronson, p. 193.