Bronze memorial by Whitney Museum founder restored in Bronx cemetery
Three life-size bronze figures are back on view in the Bronx after a two-year restoration of a cemetery memorial.
The Untermyer Memorial at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx held its ribbon-cutting on 3 October. The restoration work had started in 2024, according to The Art Newspaper.
The bronzes are by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Whitney is herself buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. The memorial was designed by Paul Chalfin and commissioned by Samuel Untermyer after the death of his wife Minnie in 1924.
Whitney made three figures for the site. They stand raised inside a granite structure with metal doors that open on three sides. The building marks the entrance to the Untermyer plot, one of the cemetery's largest plots. The doors carry flowers on the interior and allegorical scenes, pictures that stand in for ideas, on the exterior.
The effect is quiet. Stone, bronze and planting.
Restoration crews cleared overgrowth that had hidden a side entrance and a rough-hewn wall. Gardeners then added new magnolias, holly and ferns to follow the original design. Two tulip trees and a large Atlas blue cedar had survived from the early years. They are now century-old survivors at the site.
The team also cleaned a long stone whispering bench with paw feet. The curve of that kind of bench carries a whisper from one end to the other. A bronze fountain adorned with griffins, lion-eagle creatures from myth, was removed for conservation and then returned. The bluestone Star of David it rests upon had fractured into shards. It was entirely rebuilt.
The recent work was supported by the Untermyer family. Adrian Untermyer spoke at the ribbon-cutting. Meg Ventrudo, executive director of the Woodlawn Conservancy, set out the history of the project.
Samuel Untermyer's former estate is in Yonkers, New York. Its gardens are now linked to the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, which was formed in 2011.
What makes this stand out for visitors is the double portrait. One Untermyer site holds gardens. The other holds graves, and bronze figures that have watched over them for a century.
