Alexander Calder’s Rat

This is our entry in Dutch goes the Photo!’s Tuesday Photo Challenge – Sculpture.

Anyone who has visited the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. has seen and admired Alexander Calder’s huge mobile (85-foot wingspan, 920 pounds) hanging in the Central Court.  However, one of our favorite rooms in Tower 2 contains several smaller sculptures by Calder:  of these, arguably the cutest is the standing mobile Rat (even more so than Cow).   Rat was created in 1948 of sheet metal, lead, wire, and paint, and its dimensions are 8 5/8 x 15 x 8 in. (21.9 x 38.1 x 20.3 cm.).  It was last sold on November 16, 2016 by Christie’s of New York for $943,500.

 

This photo was taken on July 3, 2019. Specs are:

Olympus TG-5, ISO 200, f/2.6, 1/50 sec, 6.42 mm.