WASHINGTON SQUARE WITH STATUE OF GHARIBALDI
DECEMBER 29, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 191

The bronze statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) by Giovanni Turini was given by the Italians of America to New York City in 1888. Garibaldi was a romantic hero of the Italian risorgimento who took refuge in New York after the failed revolution of 1848. The statue was donated at a time when the great influx of southern Italian immigrants had created new tensions between native New Yorkers and Italian Americans.

Although Abbott photographed two Garibaldi monuments, her interest was probably not historical. Like her photographs of the DePeyster and Watts statues in the Wall Street district, this image emphasizes the incongruity between public sculpture and the surrounding architecture. Although his noble profile is dramatically portrayed, Garibaldi seems to be drawing his sword against a mountain of stone, the 27-story luxury apartment building at One Fifth Avenue (1928) two blocks away.

The Garibaldi statue still stands at the same location in Washington Square Park, but it has been turned to conform with the direction of a new walkway. Abbott's photograph, which relies on the relationship between Garibaldi's stance and the skyscraper behind it, could not be replicated today.

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