- Horatio Greenough
Horatio Greenough (1805-1852) was an American sculptor.
Biography
The son of David and Elizabeth Bender, he was born in Boston on
September 6 ,1805 , into a home with ethics for honesty and emphasis on good education. Horatio sparked an interest inartistic and mechanical hobbies, showing his native skills and talents at a young age. Particularly attracted tochalk , around the age of 12 he made a chalk statue ofWilliam Penn , known as his earliest work of record. Horatio also experimented withclay , from which he learned fromSolomon Willard . He also learned how to carve withmarble under instruction from Alpheus Cary. Yet Horatio seemed to have a natural talent forart , his father wasn’t fond of the idea of this as a career for Horatio. In 1821 Horatio enrolled atHarvard University , where he found a passion in works of antiquity and devoted much of his time to readingliterature and works of art. With a plan to study abroad, he learned Italian and French, but also still studiedanatomy and kept modeling sculptures. While attending Harvard he came across his first crucial influence.Washington Allston was more than a mentor, but a close friend who enlightened and inspired Horatio. He even molded a bust of Washington. Before graduating from Harvard, he sailed toRome to study art where he met the painterRobert W. Weir , while living on Via Gregoriana. These two became close friends and studied together theRenaissance and works of antiquity. Favorites of theirs were theLaocoon group of the Vatican structure galleries and theApollo Belvedere . During Horatio’s time spent in Rome he created many busts, as well as a full-size statue of the Dead Abel, and a portrait of himself. He returned to Boston in May 1827 with Weir, after recovering an attack of malaria. He then modeled more busts such asJosiah Quincy , president of Harvard,Samuel Appleton andJohn Jacob Astor . Horatio’s recognition was still not seen, so in attempt to establish a successful reputation sought out to make a portrait of PresidentJohn Quincy Adams . His plan worked as he really displayed a style of naturalism in this piece as he did in many other works. Hissculptures reflected truth and reality, but also ancient classical aesthetic ideals from which he learned fromWashington Allston . Many of Horatio’s captured works were done inFlorence, Italy where he spent most of his professional life. His sculpture The Rescue (1837-1851) and his over life-size portrait ofGeorge Washington both received United States government commissions. Some of his other most famous and important sculptures include:James Fenimore Cooper ,1831,Castor and Pollux ,1847,Marquis de Lafayette ,1831-32. Along with sculpture masterpieces he created, there are numerous drawings he also created which are displayed at the Middlebury College Museum of Art's exhibition. Although Horatio was full of energy and endeavorous, in December 1852 he couldn’t fight a striking and sudden high fever. On December 18, after two weeks of this high fever he died at the age of 47 in Somerville, near Boston. Horatio worked hard to gain the recognition, yet still little is focused upon him. As one of America’s first sculptors to gain international fame, he is important in impacting others to follow their passion in art and those that began creating sculptures.References
* Sylvia E. Crane (1972) "White Silence"
External links
* [http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?coll_keywords=Greenough&coll_has_
]
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=2&viewMode=1&item=84%2E8%2E2 bust of George Washington]
* [http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa150.htm Horatio Greenough: An American Sculptor's Drawings]
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