Joy
Marble statue by Karl H. Gruppe

Joy
Marble statue by Karl H. Gruppe
A girl crouches, resting on one knee, her arms raised to her head, holding in one hand the ends of her softly waving hair, lying loosely along one shoulder. The embodiment of an idyllic mood, she seems to be reveling in warm sunshine and light breezes as she looks backward with a dreamy expression. The figure is gently and naturally carved, with a free flow of surface and minute variations in the modeling of the face. There are no sharp transitions from one plane to another, but the outlines of eyes and lips are delicately accented. On top of the molded base a drapery is arranged in loose pleats.

Karl H. Gruppe
Born at Rochester, New York on March 18th, 1893. His mother, Helen Elizabeth Gruppe was the daughter of a clergyman living at Lakeville NY. Each time Helen was expecting a child, her father paid her passage home in order that the baby might be born in the United States. Then they would return to Holland where the children were raised. When he was 12, his father entered him in the Royal Academy at Antwerp. He stayed there for four years, studying sculpture in the afternoons with the Belgian sculptor Frans Joris. At the end of that time his father returned to the United States for the debut at Carnegie Hall of his eldest son Paul, a violoncellist, and decided to remain in this country, living in New York in the winter and Massachusetts in the summer.

All images on this sculpting site were photographed, scanned and edited by Rod and Gail Lang. Information is obtained from "Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture" Volumes I and II. To obtain a copy of these magnificent books which provide photos and detail on hundreds of sculptures in Brookgreen Gardens call the gardens at 843-237-4218.