New light on a controversial American sculptor.
Horatio Greenough is generally regarded as the first American sculptor to achieve international fame. A Boston native educated at Harvard, Greenough spent most of his professional life in Florence, Italy. While there, he nurtured lasting friendships with such Americans on the Grand Tour as James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Cole, and Samuel F. B. Morse. Although he received two key US Government commissions—George Washington, 1832–41, and The Rescue, 1837–51—contemporary aversion to his depiction of Washington as an American Zeus, and this century’s discomfort with the subject of The Rescue (a confrontation between a bellicose American Indian and a pioneer family) have worked against public understanding and viewing of his work.
This handsome presentation of 48 of his drawings, only two previously seen publicly, and 14 of his sculptures, reveals much about this gifted, yet tormented artist. The accompanying text shows how the process of drawing relates to the making of sculpture and, using the artist’s rich correspondence, provides insight into the relationship between patron and artist and the unpredictability of artistic achievement in pre-Civil War America.
