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History of Early American Landscape Design

Statue

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History

British treatises available in North America frequently mentioned the statue as an ornament and set forth varied typologies. Batty Langley (1728), for example, categorized statues according to their arrangement and use in gardens, whereas Isaac Ware (1756) used size to make distinctions. Many statues in antebellum America were made of ephemeral materials, most notably wood, and, in some cases, painted plaster. In America, high-quality stone was not readily available for carving, and large metal casting was not popular until mid- century; as a result, before 1852 many statues were imported.1 Treatise author A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville commented in 1712 that “statues are not for every man, but princes and great ministers,” suggesting that decorum and propriety regarding class and status governed the use of statues and may have discouraged their use in the colonial period.2 In addition, “statue” was not the only term used to refer to, in Noah Webster’s 1828 words, “a solid substance formed by carving into the likeness of a whole living being.” Other terms, such as “figure,” “sculpture,” “bust,” and “image,” were used with some frequency. Thomas Jefferson (1771), for example, described “a sleeping figure reclined on a plain marble slab, surrounded with turf” for his garden.3

Accounts of statues in the eighteenth century, such as those by Ezra Stiles (1754) and Daniel Fisher (1755) written with respect to the garden of Bush Hill, near Philadelphia, suggest that they ranged widely in quality. Stiles, on the one hand, claimed that the statues were exceptional—“in fine Italian marble curiously wrot”; while Fisher, on the other, stated that the statues were merely ordinary. Visitors’ garden descriptions indicate that statuary was often perceived to be worthy of mention, particularly when it was made of fine materials or when it illustrated significant themes. Philip Vickers Fithian, when extolling in 1774 the virtues of Mount Airy in Virginia, noted “four large beautiful Marble Statues.” Charles Drayton, recounting in 1806 the “beauties of landscape” at the Woodlands, near Philadelphia, noted a “fine statue” that was included in portraits of the house. Hannah Callender, writing in 1762, called attention to the statues of mythological subjects at Judge William Peters’s Belmont Mansion, near Philadelphia. Classical themes for garden statuary frequently were recommended throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by treatise writers such as John James, Batty Langley, William Marshall, and

G. Gregory. Charles Willson Peale cut figures out of wooden board to resemble “statues in sculpture,” for his garden at Belfield (c. 1825). Elias Hasket Derby commissioned a group of four wooden “figures” from woodcarvers John Skillin and Simeon Skillin, Jr. On September 25, 1793, the Skillin brothers presented Derby with a bill for “free standing figures of larger dimensions, ranging between 4 and 5 feet in height,” at a cost of approximately £7.10 each and .15 for priming. 4 These statues were pastoral in theme and included a shepherdess, a gardener, and the figure of Plenty [Fig. 1]. The Skillins’s garden statuary resembled, both in handling and form, little figures on furniture, such as secretaries and chests, which were also carved by the brothers.5

One of the most elaborate and widely known displays of statues in eighteenth century private gardens was that of Lord Timothy Dexter, who made a large fortune in the shoe business and in stock speculation. At his large house in Newburyport, Mass., Dexter improved his garden by erecting a row of columns along the outer border of his front lawn. On the top of these columns he placed “colossal images carved in wood,” including figures of “Indian chiefs, military generals, philosophers, politicians and statesmen, now and then a goddess of Fame, or Liberty . . . [and] four lions” [Fig. 2]. Dexter’s master carver Joseph Wilson (1779–1857) made approximately forty slightly less-than-life-size figures, which were occasionally repainted if a change in identity was desired.6

As a sketch (c. 1850) by Lewis Miller illustrates, statues were frequently incorporated into fountains [Fig. 3]. For the public fountain erected at Centre Square in Philadelphia [Fig. 4], sculptor William Rush (1756–1833) provided a wooden female figure loosely based on classical statues. This work was reproduced many times in plaster casts and in prints. In an advertisement in the Philadelphia Gazette, and Daily Advertiser on July 20, 1820, Rush defended his choice of wood on the basis of economy and practicality.7 The fountain figure, entitled Allegory of the Schuylkill River (or Water Nymph and Bittern), was moved to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park in about 1829. Frances Milton Trollope described the striking effect of white painted wood against the dark rock Rush had amassed for the base. In both sites, the statue functioned as a visual focus for the designed landscape.

Statues were located throughout the garden or landscape. At the Moreau House in Morrisville, Pa., a classically inspired statue dominated the garden [Fig. 5]. At Belvedere in Baltimore, statues were interspersed with urns on the lawn [Fig. 6]. At Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., they were placed on top of monuments or memorials [Fig. 7]. At the Elias Hasket Derby House in Salem, Mass., the extant sculpture Plenty was situated in front of a summerhouse, while the Gardener and the Shepherdesswere positioned on the roof of a summerhouse designed by Samuel McIntire [see Summerhouse, Fig. 8]. At Fairmount Park, another William Rush statue, Mercury, was placed on top of a garden structure overlooking the river [Fig. 8]. Lemon Hill in Philadelphia was known for its collection of garden statues, including, as Benjamin L. C. Wailes noted on December 29, 1829, “a dog of natural size carved out of marble [who] sits just within the entrance [of the grotto], the guardian of the place.”8

Statues were used by garden designers to bring a focal point to the layout and to divert the eye. At Belmont Mansion, statues were placed in the center of the labyrinth, according to Hannah Callender. Statues often were placed on the lawn in front of the main façade of the house, as they were at the Woodlands, creating visual and physical ties between the ornamental style of the house and the garden scenery, as advised by British writer Thomas Whately (1770). Likewise, at Iranistan, in Bridgeport, Conn., statues on pedestals flanked the flower beds located near the grand entrance staircase [Fig. 9]. In other cases, statues were placed along the terrace, where they helped to articulate the divide between house and ornamented landscape. Charles Lyell in 1846 related this use of statues at country houses in Natchez, Miss. At Point Breeze, ancient statues overlooked the terrace and distant landscape [Fig. 10].

In public gardens, statues played a significant role in thematic spectacles, such as fireworks and transparent paintings, which were intended to lure customers. Statues of political and military heroes, together with those of figures from Greek mythology, as well as copies of renowned statues, such as the Medici Apollo, also decorated commercial gardens.

Statues were especially important in sites of public commemoration, such as public squares. The fate of the gilded lead statue of George III in the Bowling Green in New York illustrates the political charge such monuments could carry. In 1776, after a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, the statue purportedly was pulled down by the assembled crowd and melted for bullets.9 In 1800, Latrobe recorded that the statue of Lord Botetourt was damaged by students at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, as a statement of protest against British aristocracy; it was subsequently moved to a private garden. Statues could instruct as well as incite. When planning the public space in the center of Washington, D.C., Pierre-Charles L’Enfant included statues representing those who helped the United States achieve liberty and independence and individuals worthy of imitation and adulation. In the nineteenth century, statues became crucial elements in the new public parks. A. J. Downing, when describing in 1851 the benefits of a park in New York, pointedly stated that such a place would provide an appropriate setting for statues and other works of art that commemorated the history of the nation.

A choice of style or subject of the statue might have been justified in one garden because it harmonized with the architectural style of the home. On the other hand, it might have been praised for the pleasing contrast it offered from plants in the surrounding landscape. In American gardens, it is important to note that in spite of changing taste and fashion, statues as garden elements were always valued, and a place was found for them whether on the terrace or hidden in a grove.

-- Anne L. Helmreich.

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Statue," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Statue&oldid=10371 (accessed March 28, 2024).

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