Immediately north of the Conservatory Water in Central Park, and commissioned by George Delacorte, is Alice in Wonderland by José de Creeft dating from 1959. The sculpture was designed from John Tenniel's book illustrations, although (according to the Central Park web site) Alice's face is a representation of Creeft's daughter Donna, and the Mad Hatter is 'a caricature of George Delacorte'. Taking decent photos of this wonderful creation is frustrating on a sweltering New York day because kids of any age (i.e. regular tourists) must satisfy their (to me incomprehensible) desire to be photographed climbing on a work of art and grinning inanely. This artwork reminded me of Make Way for Ducklings! in Boston, the Peter Pan sculptures in Kensington Gardens and Oamaru, New Zealand, and the Dr Seuss sculptures in Springfield, Massachusetts, all of which I've made posts of, and all of which I may get round to providing with links in the near future.
At the time the only thing in my head was to take the photos while the poseur(se)s changed, but looking back now I can't prevent Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit' from invading my consciousness.
Googling, I find that there is indeed a strong resemblance between the Mad Hatter and the sponsor George Delacorte.
'One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small...'
Bad trip, man, but then that Cheshire Cat's enough to give anybody one.
But those mushrooms don't look very magic to me. 'Go ask Alice'. I'm sure Lewis Carroll wouldn't have known.
Around the sculpture are seven plaques, six bearing Carroll quotations:
'ALICE IN WONDERLAND
IN MEMORY OF MY WIFE
MARGARITA DELACORTE
WHO LOVED ALL CHILDREN
GTD'
'TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE BAT!
HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU'RE AT!
UP ABOVE THE WORLD YOU FLY,
LIKE A TEA-TRAY IN THE SKY.'
(Carroll's parody of June Taylor's 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.')
'THEY TOLD ME YOU HAD BEEN TO HER,
AND MENTIONED ME TO HIM:
SHE GAVE ME A GOOD CHARACTER,
BUT SAID I COULD NOT SWIM.'
'BEAUTIFUL SOUP, SO RICH AND GREEN,
WAITING IN A HOT TUREEN!
WHO FOR SUCH DAINTIES WOULD NOT STOOP?
SOUP OF THE EVENING, BEAUTIFUL SOUP!'
'TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE
AGREED TO HAVE A BATTLE
FOR TWEEDLEDUM SAID TWEEDLEDEE
HAD SPOILED HIS NICE NEW RATTLE.'
'TWAS BRILLIG, AND THE SLITHY TOVES
DID GYRE AND GIMBLE IN THE WABE;
ALL MIMSY WERE THE BOROGROVES,
AND THE MOME RATHS OUTGRABE.'
'SPEAK ROUGHLY TO YOUR LITTLE BOY,
AND BEAT HIM WHEN HE SNEEZES:
HE ONLY DOES IT TO ANNOY,
BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT TEASES.'
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