Statue of Harrison Gray Otis
| Statue of Harrison Gray Otis | |
|---|---|
 Otis group (2008) | |
 | |
| Artist | Paul Troubetzkoy |
| Year | 1918 |
| Medium | Bronze |
| Location | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| 34°3′34″N 118°16′44.9″W / 34.05944°N 118.279139°W | |
A statue of Harrison Gray Otis (sometimes called General Harrison Gray Otis)[1] is installed in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, in the U.S. state of California.[2][3] The bronze statue was originally part of a sculptural group (sometimes called the "Otis Group")[4] that originally included a newsboy and a soldier.[5][6] The artist, Paul Troubetzkoy, won a design competition in 1918 and the final product was installed in 1920.[5] The soldier has been absent for decades, the newsboy was stolen for its scrap metal value in March 2024.[5] The theft was discovered by Anne-Lise Desmas, an art historian and Getty Museum curator who brought a colleague from the Louvre to the park to see Troubetzkoy's work and found the newsboy absent.[5] Investigators believe that the metal thieves posed as city maintenance workers to avoid questions about what they were doing with the cast-bronze figure.[5]
The model for the newsboy was Andrew Azzoni, whose father worked as a waiter at a restaurant patronized by Troubetzkoy.[5]
A scene from the Buster Keaton film Hard Luck was shot at the statue in 1921, at which time all three figures were still present.[7]
The statue, standing in close proximity to Wilshire Boulevard, has been the victim of several car crashes.[5]
Gallery[edit]
-
General Harrison Grey Otis statue at MacArthur Park, complete with "doughboy" and newsboy; likely photographed in the 1930s (Los Angeles Public Library WPA 6012) -
Buster Keaton's character in Hard Luck (1921) outwits pursuing lawmen by disguising himself as one of the Otis group figures in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles
See also[edit]
- The Pioneer (Los Angeles) - stolen for scrap and recovered in 2008
References[edit]
- ^ "General Harrison Gray Otis, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ "General Harrison Gray Otis Statue". Los Angeles Explorers Guild. February 3, 2022. Archived from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ Lopez, Robert J. (May 11, 2009). "CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ "Paul Troubetskoy (or Troubetzkoy), Otis Group, Macarthur Park, Los Angeles". Public Art in LA. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g Curwen, Thomas (April 12, 2024). "Copper thieves strike again, mutilating a 100-year-old monument in MacArthur Park". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 12, 2024. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
- ^ Waldie, D. J. (March 22, 2016). "The Newsboy, the General, and the Lost Soldier of MacArthur Park". KCET. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ Bengtson, John; Brownlow, Kevin (2000). Silent echoes: discovering early Hollywood through the films of Buster Keaton. Santa Monica, Calif.: Santa Monica Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-891661-06-8.
External links[edit]
Media related to Statue of Harrison Gray Otis at Wikimedia Commons
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