'Samuel Johnson'

细节

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
'Samuel Johnson'
inscribed 'Aug. St. Gaudens Fecit Roma 1874/Sam...Johnson (on the base)
plaster
29 in. (73.7 cm.) high

来源

James Thomson, acquired directly from the artist, circa 1874.
Windsor Public Library, Windsor, Vermont, 1892, gift from the above.
Private Collection, Windsor, Vermont.

出版

J.H. Dryfhout, The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover and London, 1982, p. 68, no. 44, recorded, illustration of the marble version.

拍品专文

Saint-Gaudens' bust of the great literary figure Samuel Johnson, commissioned by James Thomson, was inspired by several different artistic sources. In addition to studying a collection of engraved portraits of Johnson, one of which was after Joshua Reynolds, Saint- Gaudens acquired a plaster copy of the marble bust of Johnson by the well-known sculptor Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This commission was important to Saint-Gaudens as it enabled him to continue working while other commissions were consumed by his debts. The present work, previously unlocated, is the plaster version of the marble bust currently in the collection of the R.W. Norton Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana.