Fairmount Park, they say, has some of the finest outdoor art in the country. That calls for a gentle touch.
Kurt Solmssen understood. Earlier this week, he lightly ran his right hand across the big, bronzed left foot of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' The Pilgrim. Erected in 1904 on what is now Kelly Drive, opposite Boathouse Row, the illustrious old gentleman, 12 feet high and clasping a Bible under his left arm, wore the accumulated dirt of a year - grime from passing cars, corrosive streaks from acid rain, bits of leaves fallen from a holly tree sheltering the 94-year-old statue.
``Philadelphia has some of the largest and best outdoor sculptures in the country,'' said Solmssen, hired to spend more than three weeks scrubbing monuments at Fairmount Park Commission sites. ``Some I get to work with are the best.''
That's not just hyperbole, said Laura Griffith, assistant director of the Fairmount Park Art Association, which funds the annual maintenance program. The private, nonprofit organization, founded in 1872 to enhance Philadelphia's outdoor art, spent about $30,000 in public and private funds to spruce up the monuments this year.
That's pocket change compared to their value, she said.
Consider Cowboy, the only full-scale statue renowned American artist Frederic Remington, noted for his Western-themed work, ever created. The bronze piece, depicting a lean rider bringing his hard-charging pony to a sudden stop, was cast in 1908. It's tucked among the greenery opposite the Schuylkill, a little bit of the Wild West on Kelly Drive.
Not far from Remington's work is General Ulysses S. Grant. It's a massive thing, grim and great - the commander of the Union Army, later the 18th president, astride a muscular horse. He appears to bear the weight of the entire Civil War on his shoulders. Daniel Chester French and Edward C. Potter cast the statue in 1897, while America vividly recalled the hero of Appomattox.
