Central Park In Bronze

Location: 66th Street, east side 

Artist/Designer: Paul Howard Manship

Materials: Bronze, granite

Installation: 1961

Funding: Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman

 

Atop the Lehman Gates, at the center of the entrance to the Children’s Zoo in Central Park, are three dancing figures: a boy and two goats. Two other boys positioned over the end posts play panpipes, providing the music. Between the figures is a curlicue of vegetation on which birds appear to have just landed. The whole composition is a lovely commentary on the interaction between children and animals, fitting for the zoo entrance.

 

The gates were donated in honor of the Lehmans’ 50th wedding anniversary, which coincided with the opening of the Children's Zoo in 1961. The artist Paul Manship, a prominent 20th-century American sculptor, is perhaps best known for his gilded Prometheus at Rockefeller Center.