# Philosophy (bust of figure on front facade of New York Public Library)

- By: Paul Wayland Bartlett (born New Haven, CT 1865-died Paris, France 1925)
- Date: modeled ca. 1915
- Medium: bronze
- Classification: Sculpture
- Dimensions: 20 3/8 x 26 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (51.6 x 67.5 x 29.3 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Armistead Peter III
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=1445)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/3d059e0dd517f9d3bc6a525f5d1fc187.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The full-length statues Philosophy and Poetry stand above the grand entrance of the New York Public Library. Paul Wayland Bartlett modeled six heroic figures for this commission---History and Philosophy, Romance and Religion, Poetry and Drama---to symbolize the different fields of knowledge represented in the library. These tall sculptures, designed to sit on a one-foot-wide shelf far above ground level, were carved in high relief to exaggerate the features of the figures.