NML home > Merseyside Maritime Museum> Collections > Liverpool: world gateway > The Birth of Aphrodite

Our venues

Collections

The Birth of Aphrodite, 1955

Arthur Fleischmann (1896-1990)

Perspex

clear sculpture of female figure surrounded by stars, as described in the text

"Dr AJ Fleischman’s lovely female figure …provides a note of grace and beauty on D deck entrance."
WA Gibson Martin, The Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, 1956

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNC) commissioned Arthur Fleischmann to produce The Birth of Aphrodite for the ship Reina del Mar (1956). Fleischmann used a half-ton block of clear Perspex built up from laminated sheets. He carved the sculpture by hand with mallet and chisel.

The Birth of Aphrodite represents the Greek goddess emerging from the sea foam from which she was born, floating ashore on a scallop shell.

Reina del Mar, built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, sailed from Liverpool to South America. Film of the maiden voyage of Reina Del Mar can be seen in the Life at Sea gallery on the first floor.

This sculpture is on display in the Liverpool: world gateway gallery on the ground floor. It is on loan from the Fleischmann family and with the support of the Arthur Fleischmann Foundation.