Brown, Henry Kirke American, 1814-1886 Carabelli, Joseph Italian, 1850-1911 Phillip Kearney Jr
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Brown, Henry Kirke American, 1814-1886 Carabelli, Joseph Italian, 1850-1911 Phillip Kearney Jr. Monument Bronze and Granite, 1900 Gift of Charles H. Hackley to the City of Muskegon and Phil Kearny Post No. 7, G.A.R. The Phillip Kearny, Jr. Monument, commissioned by Charles H. Hackley, philanthropist, businessman, and lumberman as a gift to the City of Muskegon and the Phil Kearny Post No. 7, G.A.R. was sculpted by Henry Kirke Brown, and is in Kearny Memorial Park at the corner of Peck and Terrace streets, in downtown Muskegon. Brown began to paint portraits while still a boy, studied painting in Boston under Chester Harding, and from 1836-1839, spent his summers working as a railroad engineer to earn enough to enable him to study further. He spent four years (1842–1846) in Italy; but returned to New York because he wanted to ensure that his art remained distinctively American. He bemoaned the fact that so many of the early American sculptors were dominated by Italian influence. Even so, his work combines American subject matter with the style of the Italian masters, such as Donatello. Brown was one of the first in America to cast his own bronzes. In 1847, Brown was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1851. Among his other works are: Abraham Lincoln (Union Square, New York City); Nathanael Greene, George Clinton, Philip Kearny, and Richard Stockton (all in the National Statuary Hall, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.); De Witt Clinton (illustration, below) and The Angel of the Resurrection, both in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York; and an Aboriginal Hunter. The New York Times remarked that the DeWitt Clinton was the first American full-length sculpture cast in a single piece, when it was exhibited temporarily in City Hall Park in 1855. Joseph Carabelli, designed the pedestal, made of Barre granite with Kearny etched on the front. Philip Kearny, Jr. was a United States Army officer, notable for his leadership in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He received command of the 3rd Division of the III Corps on April 30, 1862, and he was killed in action in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly. Kearny is credited with devising the first unit insignia patches used in the U.S. Army. In the summer of 1862, he issued an order that his officers should wear a patch of red cloth on the front of their caps to identify themselves as members of his unit. The Phillip Kearny, Jr. Monument is cast in bronze and is a replicate of the Kearny Statue in Statuary Hall in Washington D.C. also designed by Henry Kirke Brown. Kearny is standing at rest, his coat cloaking the absence of his left arm, and he is resting his right hand on the handle of his sword that is attached at the tip to the base. .