Abstract and figurative sculptures grace Kykuit’s walled inner garden, designed circa 1907–13 by Beaux-Arts architect William Welles Bosworth. Once the residence of the Rockefeller family and now a National Trust Historic Site preserved and operated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tarrytown, New York, property was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in the early 1990s. About 40 years earlier, Nelson A. Rockefeller purchased the Aristide Maillol sculpture shown in this photo. The French sculptor, painter, and printmaker made the work, Chained Action: Torso of the Monument to Blanqui, circa 1906. The bronze is one of at least five casts of this piece, and bears the mark of the Rudier Foundry, a famous Parisian metal caster. It still stands in the same location in the inner garden, and the landscape looks just the way it does in the photo, taken before Kykuit opened for public tours in 1994.
During the National Trust’s 75th anniversary year, Flash Back will highlight a place of significance to the organization’s history.
