William Henry Rinehart, born at Frederick, Maryland, in 1825, was an artist who rose from the humble occupation of a stone-cutter to the position of a sculptor of the first rank. Iii 1855 he went to Florence, Italy, where lie remained three years, studying and working at his art. In 1858 he visited America, but after a short stay in Baltimore returned to Italy and opened a studio in Rome, where he died in 1874. Rinehart had a decided talent for plastic art, and in technical skill his productions may deservedly be placed with those of Thorwaldsen and Canova. Of his works we may mention the Woman of Samaria, Endymion, A Nymph, I alma and her Infiznts, and, in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, the beautiful statue of awe (p. 47, fig. 2), in which the artist, with the admirable skill of classic sculpture, has translated the story of Clytie's ill-fated passion for Apollo.
Randolph Rogers was born in the State of New York about 1825. He was brought up to mercantile pursuits, but turned his attention to sculp ture at an early age, going to Italy for study and remaining for some time in Rome. He subsequently returned to America and opened a studio in New York City, finally returning to Rome, where he still resides. Rogers was commissioned by the United States government to model the bronze doors for the Capitol at Washington; these doors, which represent the chief events in the career of Columbus, were cast in Munich. Among his monumental works are the statues of Mason, Marshall, and Nelson, and many of the allegorical figures for the Wash ington monument at Richmond, Virginia, which Thomas Crawford left incomplete at the time of his death. Rogers also produced the memorial monument at Providence, Rhode Island, the statue of Seward in New York City, and that of Lincoln in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Among his ideal subjects are /Ueda, Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii, and Ruth (fl. 48, fig. 7), which were exhibited at the Centennial Exhi bition in 1876.
Civil War has proved a great boon to Ameri can sculptors; both in the North and in the South the demand for civic monuments to commemorate our dead heroes has been so vast that our sculptors have reaped fortunes out of the popular sentiment. Among them perhaps the most noteworthy are Martin Milmorc (1845-1883), James W. A. Macdonald, Moses J. Ezekiel (q. v.), Charles Calverly (born in 1833), Olin L. Warner (born in 1844), and Daniel C. French (born in 7850), besides Ward and Thompson, already mentioned. Bronze and marble have been plentifully employed to decorate our cities and country towns with costly memorials which testify to the patriotism and the number of our sculptors, but of the art of these public works one can not always speak with confidence or approval. One resultant good has
been, perhaps, to foster an art that, like the other cannot live with out popular recognition, and thus sustain it until it could struggle to a higher plane of excellence. Already we note signs of a change in the style of our sculptors—especially in the younger members of the guild— which must blossom into a higher art than we have yet had when Ameri can sculptors abandon a slavish imitation of foreign art and bring to strictly original conceptions a new and national application of the prin ciples underlying the art of sculpture.
Moses Jacob Ezekiel was born at Richmond, Virginia, in 7844, and graduated at the Virginia Military Institute in 7866. In 1869 he entered the Royal Academy of Arts at Berlin, and was also a student under Professor Albert Wolff. In 1873 lie gained a prize that enabled him to study in Italy, and, excepting occasional visits to America, he has resided at Rome since 1874. He has received several medals; he is a member of the society of artists in both Rome and Berlin, and also of the art-association of his native city. This sculptor's works have been exhibited in both Europe and America. Among the most important of his productions are the marble group Religthus Liberty 48, jig. 3), in Fairmount Park, Phila delphia, Israel, TheAlartyr, Grace Darling, Faith, Consolation, and Com mand. Ezekiel is an artist of genius, and his subjects evince original power in conception and excellent technical skill.
Augustus St. our most promising sculptors must be numbered Augustus St. Gaudens, born in 1848, whose studies were at Paris and entirely distinct from the traditions or practices of recent Italian sculptors. St. Gaudens is a man of genius, and is still compar atively so new in his profession that we may look for much excellent work from him in the future. He has a style of his own, based on a cor rect perception of the principles of his art. He was the first among Amer ican sculptors and one of the few among the sculptors of this century to recognize the principle that sculpture is a decorative art—that when seen alone it leaves a sense of incompleteness, while as an adjunct to architec ture it assumes dignity and grandeur. The art of St. Gaudens is yet immature, but it is on the upward tendency, and needs only the oppor tunity to develop into results of decided importance to American art. He is unequal, the statue of Admiral Farragut being singular rather than satisfactory; his decorative alto-rilievo behind the altar in St. Thomas's Church, New York, called the Adoration of the Angels, is a very beautiful composition, conceived and executed thoroughly in the spirit of true sculpture.