NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 08242020 3 L&pox Library .Ihuichtm-h ('uUcrtum, Jtonrinl ot Iforatin #mttnttgfj Of |P«rirf of smtw <$rwrag| CONSISTING OF A MEMOIR SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS AND TRIBUTES TO HIS GENIUS BY HENRY T TUCKERMAN • • • > • • • • , . • NEW YORK: . • . G. P, PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE, 1853. * Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, BY G. P. PUTNAM & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. R. Craighead, Printer, 53 Vesey Str& t. €wUnis. pa ob Memoir, 9 Catalogue op "Works, 54 ESSAYS ^esthetics at "washington, 61 Social Theories, 95 American Art, 105 American Architecture, , 111 Kelatiye and Independent Beauty, 131 The Trumbull Gallery, . H6 Burke on The Beautiful, 151 Criticism in Search of Beauty, 157 Structure and Organization, . 170 The Cooper Monument, . 184 Fashion, 168 An Artist's Creed, . 192 Fragments, .... 199 vi Contents. TRIBUTES. PAGE Essay on the Statue of Washington, by A. H. Everett, . 215 " A Visit to Greenough's Studio, from Scenes and Thoughts in Europe," 226 Meeting of Artists at Rome, . 232 To the Group of The Angel and Child, by "Washington Allston, 238 To the Same, 239 To the Statue of Medora, by Richard H. Dana, . 240 To the Statue of Washington, by H. T. Tuckerman, . 241 To the Chanting Cherubs, by Richard H. Dana, . 243 Monody on the Death of Horatio Greexough, by George H. Calvert, . 244 Btarinl M E M I R. Although the creations of the artist are his best monument, when the spirit in which he works transcends the limits of a special vocation, and associates him with the progress of society, and the happiness of his friends, a catalogue raisonne of what he has left in marble or colors, we feel to be an incomplete record of his life. The recent death of our earliest sculptor has caused so wide and sincere a grief that it becomes not less a sacred duty than a melancholy pleasure to trace his career, gather up the tributes to his genius, and endeavor to delineate the features of his character and it is at the of those ; request more dear to him, as well as from a vivid sentiment of affection and regret, that I have prepared this inadequate memorial of A life that all the muses decked "With gifts of grace that might express All-comprehensive tenderness, All subtilizing intellect: 10 Memoir. Heart-affluence in discursive talk From household fountains never dry ; The critic clearness of an eye, That saw throucrh all the Muses' walk : Ko longer caring to embalm In dying songs or dead regret, But like a statue solid-set, And moulded in colossal calm.* Horatio Greenough was born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 6, 1805. His father belonged to that respected class of merchants whose integrity, enterprise, and intelligence, half a century ago, justly gave them a degree of consideration which is almost unknown at the present day. Comparatively few in number, and active in the political and social life of the town, they almost created public opinion, and were remarkable for individuality of character not less than a tone of mind above of trade. This and beyond the mere spirit was evinced in the careful manner in which their children were brought up, and the intellectual privileges afforded them, the sacred interest attached to home, and the superiority of the local schools. The mother of Greenough is a native of Massachusetts, endowed with the conscientious affection and vigorous intellect that are so honor- able a distinction of the genuine New England matron. He was one of several children, and shared with them the educa- * Tennyson's In Memoriam. Memoir. 11 tion both of public and private seminaries, and of the domestic circle. The instinct of genius discovers amid circumstances appa- rently inauspicious, the means and incentives for its develop- ment. In the community where Greenough was born and passed his early years, there existed a prevalent taste and more than one noble to the of letters example encourage votary ; Stuart's masterpieces, family portraits by Copley, a few choice originals and many fine copies from the old masters, as well as the presence of native artists of more or less skill and fame, offered a stimulus to the cultivation of drawing and painting; the system of popular education, and the intellectual tone of society, were also highly favorable to individual culture in its relations but the art of in was if general ; modelling clay rarely ever practised, the specimens of sculpture were few, and only a strong natural bias could have so early directed Greenough's aspirations towards the art. Having a decided sense of form, a love of imitating it, and a mechanical aptitude which kept his knife, pencil, and scissors continually active, he employed hours in carving, drawing, and moulding toys, faces, and wea- pons, by way of amusing himself and his comrades. I have seen a head evidently taken from an old Roman coin, executed upon a bit of compact plaster about the size of a penny, admi- rably cut by Greenough with a penknife and common nail, while a schoolboy, seated upon the door-step of one of his neighbors. The lady who observed this achievement, pre- served the little medal with care and was the first to religious ; 12 Memoir. give the young sculptor a commission. It was for her that he executed the beautiful ideal bust of the Genius of Love. This propensity soon took a higher range. It was encouraged by the mechanics and professional men around him, whose good-will his agreeable manners and obvious genius propi- tiated. One kind artisan taught him the use of fine tools; a stone-cutter, of more than ordinary taste, instructed him to chisel wield a ; benevolent librarians allowed him the use of and manuals a him access to plates, casts, ; physician gave anatomical and illustrations and a French designs ; Binon, artist, known by his bust of John Adams in Faneuil Hall, Bos- ton, encouraged him to model at his side. Thus, as a mere schoolboy, did Greenough glean the rudiments of an artistic education without formal initiation. With eclectic wisdom he sought and found the aid he required, while exploring the streets of his native town one he be seen ; day might poring over a folio, or contemplating a plaster copy of a famous statue on his mechanical ; and, another, exercising ingenuity at the office of Solomon Willard, whose family name yet stamps, with traditional value, many an old dial-plate in New now he watches as he England ; eagerly Alpheus Cary the touch to a cherub's head on a tombstone puts finishing ; and, again, he stands a respectful devotee before Shaw or Coggswell, waiting for some treasured volume on the process or the results of his favorite art, from the shelves of Harvard and the Athenaeum. Some of his triumphs are still — juvenile remembered by his playmates especially a pistol ornamented Memoir. 13 in with relievo flowers in lead, a series of carriages moulded a lion bee's-wax, scores of wooden daggers tastefully carved, coucbant, modelled with a spoon from a pound of butter, to astonish his mother's guests at tea, elaborate card-paper plans for estates, and, as a climax to these childish yet graceful expe- riments, a little figure of Penn cut in chalk from an engraving of his statue in the Port-Folio. There is no truth more sustained by the facts of conscious- ness, than that the mind assimilates only its legitimate nutriment. of The artist, the hero, and the lover seem hardly conscious ministers to their any element of life, save that which idiosyn- and it is in these lawr s of and not in external crasy ; character, any of life. The appliances, that we must seek a true philosophy real-estate broker, as he passed the home of the young sculptor, saw but a certain number of feet of ground, and perchance was speculated on its value; but the ardent gaze of the boy only conscious of a statue of Phocion that stood in the garden. its the The mystery of that figure, the process of creation, law of its design, were the great problems of his dawning intel- ligence; he was sensible of a relation to the sphere of human activity represented by that image. It was more to him than the animated forms in the street, more than the printed charac- ters of his hornbook, more than an academic degree. It was a nucleus for his reveries, a hint to his ingenuity, a prophecy of his life. It kept bright and palpable to his young imagina- tion the idea of being a sculptor, and though the language of State St. Long Wharf, and even the old South Church gave no 14 Memoir. confirmation to the oracle, —to him its silent eloquence was none the less impressive, for his nature had an element of the Greek as well as the Puritan, which asserted itself in spite of time and place. This strong tendency for art did not, however, alone charac- terize his mind. The graces of scholarship were equally- native. At school and college he excelled in the classics, and exhibited a command of language and perception of the beauties of expression, such as usually indicate the future orator and poet. It is recorded that no classmate excelled him in verbal and when a be used to recite a memory ; quite boy, thousand lines of English verse, at a time, without error or hesitation.