My Mother the Wind, (sculpture).

My Mother the Wind, (sculpture).

Lyford, Cabot, 1925-2016, sculptor.

My Mother the Wind, (sculpture).

1975. Installed Nov. 1975.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: Australian dark gray granite; Base: granite.

Sculpture: approx. 5 ft. x 10 ft. x 30 in.; Base: approx. 5 x 4 x 3 ft. (6 tons).

(On granite plaque on base, incised letters:) FOR THOSE/WHO SAILED/HERE TO FIND/A NEW LIFE/(In script) Cabot Lyford/1976 signed

An abstract depiction of a female figure wearing a flowing dress crouching forward on her proper left leg. Her proper right leg is extended backward with her foot raised in the air. The female figure holds an infant to her front proper left side cradled in her proper left hand. The infant's cheek is pressed against the female figure's cheek. The female figure's proper right hand clutches her proper right breast. The sculpture is placed atop a rough granite boulder with two benches placed against it.

History -- United States -- Immigration

Figure group -- Family -- Mother & Child

Allegory -- Element -- Air

Outdoor Sculpture -- New Hampshire -- Portsmouth

Administered by City of Portsmouth, Trustees of Portsmouth's Trust Funds, 105 Marcy Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801

Located Four Tree Island, Northwest tip, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

The sculpture cost in excess of $12,000. It was commissioned by The Trustees of Portsmouth's Trust Funds. Some controversy arose over the cost of the sculpture and the fact that Australian granite, shipped to New Hampshire, "The Granite State," was used and not black granite quarried in nearby North Berwick, Maine. The sculpture is a personification of the wind that carried Europeans to the New World and that brought people and prosperity to Portsmouth. According to the artist, when the sculpture was installed on its base by a crane, it came down hard cracking one of the toes.

IAS files contain related articles from the Portsmouth Herald, Nov. 26, 1975 and April 3, 1976; an excerpt from Ray Brighton's "The Prescott Story," New Castle, New Hampshire: Portsmouth Marine Society, c1982, pg. 101-105; and an excerpt from David Ruell's "The Public Sculpture of New Hampshire," Concord, New Hampshire: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1980, pg. 282-284.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, New Hampshire survey, 1995.

Brighton, Ray, "The Prescott Story," New Castle, NH: Portsmouth Marine Society, c1982, pg. 105.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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