This is one of a pair of monumental sculptures called "Man Controlling Trade" (1942) located at the apex of the Federal Triangle office complex (Constitution Avenue and 6th Street, NW).

According to "Sculpture and the Federal Triangle" (1985) by George Gurney, the pair of monoliths were created between 1937 and 1942 by Michael Lantz and were meant to symbolize the mission of the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Lantz, an artist schooled in the Beaux-Arts tradition, won this Depression-era federal commission after a rigorous competition. Among his advisors for this project was Paul Manship - the early 20th century master (Prix de Rome - 1909) who created the Prometheus sculpture at the Rockefeller center garden patio in New York City.

I call this photo:

This is the same sculpture from another angle.

This sculpture fits into what has now come to be know as the "Art Deco" style. According to "Art Deco" (1994) by Richard Striner

"...The most accurate way to think about Art Deco - a term coined in the 1960s in honor of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris - is to view it as a cluster of design trends that expressed certain powerful moods of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Its repertoire was derived from sources as diverse as classical antiquity and futuristic fantasy. It used exotic ornamentation while assimilating streamlined industrial design. It interacted with - and it infiltrated - a great many other design modes, and the result was often a welter of exotic hybrids. ... Walk up New York's Lexington Avenue and gaze at the silvery spire of the Chrysler Building: one can feel the rhythms of the Jazz Age. One can feel the messages of power, technology, exotica, and elegance shimmering down from the ziggurat atop the skyline. ..."

Richard Striner, Art Deco (1994) at 6-7

Washington, like New York, has many fascinating and undiscovered examples of art and architecture from this era of design.

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