Eagles and Prey

Eagles and Prey, by Christophe Fratin (1800-1864), is the oldest known sculpture in any New York City park. Cast in Paris in 1850, the statue was a gift given to the City by Gordon Webster Burnham (1803-1885). It was installed in Central Park in 1863. Burnham, a manufacturing giant, also commissioned the heroic-sized statue of Daniel Webster that stands on the West Drive at 72nd Street.

Fratin was born in Metz, France, and began his studies under a local sculptor named Pioche, who had achieved a measure of fame in Paris. Fratin’s father was a taxidermist, which might account for the sculptor’s penchant for animal images. In Paris, Fratin joined the atelier of the painter Géricault, an artist celebrated for his anatomical studies and for the monumental picture Raft of the Medusa.

By the 1830s, Fratin became associated with the sculptors known as animaliers, because of their preference for animal subjects. During this time, he produced a series of small bronze pieces that were thought to be fanciful and romantic in tone. He exhibited for the first time at the Parisian Salon of 1831. Fratin subsequently cultivated patrons in France, Germany, Austria, England, and the United States. His work was particularly well received in England, where he was awarded a medal for work displayed in the Great Exposition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851. Eagles and Prey illustrates the animaliers’ interest in the elemental forces of nature: a helpless goat is caught in the talons of two birds of prey. The work’s rich surface texture and anatomical detail are typical of Fratin’s style. Introduced into Central Park just a year after the park’s Board of Commissioners committee formed to review new statuary, Eagles and Prey was considered by some to be an intrusion. Critic Clarence Cook felt that Fratin’s choice of subject and ‘wild, exotic depictions’ did not fit in with ‘the tranquil rural beauty of the park scenery.’ Eagles and Prey, however, outlasted such initially squeamish sentiments. The sculpture, cleaned and repaired by the Central Park Conservancy in 1992, remains an integral member of the group of 19th and early 20th century statues in and around the Mall.