Daniel Webster (1782- 1852), American Statesman, was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire. Aspiring to but never attaining the Presidency of the United States, Webster's political career included terms as a Congressman, Senator, and Secretary of State. His eloquence as a speaker and writer, however, earned him the widest renown.

This statuette is a replica of a figure modelled by Thomas Ball (1819-1911), son of a Charlestown, Massachusetts, house and sign painter. Art dealer C.W. Nichols obtained the copyright to reproduce this popular statuette, making it one of the earliest examples of mass-produced American sculpture.
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Sculptor Joseph A Bailly (1825-1883) was born in Paris and came to the United States in 1848 and to Philadelphia in 1850. In 1876 he became the professor of sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
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Today that hospital continues as the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, a teaching hospital in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, affiliated with the University of Paris Descartes.
]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> ]]> Oval mat. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame is identical to frames for 1977.05.01-02, and 1977.05.04)]]> Oval mat. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame is identical to frames for 1977.05.01-03)]]>
Born in Italy, Luca Madrassi (fl. 1869-1914) studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In addition to his realistic military sculpture, Madrassi was a master of the fantastic, modeling such allegorical subjects as fairies, cupids, satyrs and genies.
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Born in Paris of Russian parents, Pierre Nicolas Tourgueneff (1854-1912) specialized in portrait and equestrian sculpture. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1880 to 1911, four times receiving honorable mentions and the Grand Prize at the Universal Exposition of 1889. Tourgueneff's realistic modeling of this uniformed soldier and horse reflects more than an artistic interest in his subject. He was a member of the Legion of Honor, achieving the rank of "Chevalier" in 1903, after twenty years of active service. The Legion of Honor, instituted by Napoleon in 1802, is France's highest honor for citizens of military or civil distinction.
]]> ]]> ]]> The painted scene shows a young man leaning down to offer water from a spring pipe to a young lady leaning on the rocks. Both are dressed in classical garb, he in purple and she in yellow.]]> Background is beige with raised vertical stripes of alternating solid and broken bars. Embroidered with heavy silk threads (rose, pink, beige, yellow, black and green) in main design of clusters of assorted flowers. This is bordered by an embroidered vertical pattern of alternating discs and petals in shades of gold, brown and pink.
This scrap of fabric was preserved by the Bordentown Library as a souvenier taken when the furnishings of "Point Breeze" were sold at public auction in 1847.]]> Textured beige background with raised vertical stripes. Small embroidered design of flowers.
This scrap of fabric was preserved by the Bordentown Library as a souvenier taken when the furnishings of "Point Breeze" were sold at public auction in 1847.]]>
French-born sculptor and stoneworker Charles Bullett (1820-1873) studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before moving to New York City in 1848, and then to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1850. He earned widespread acclaim for his sculpture, and served as the principal of the sculpture department during the building of the capitol in Columbus. He eventually settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where he helped establish the Muldoon Monument Company, a marble cutting firm highly regarded for its work throughout Kentucky and the American South. Bullett supervised the production of monuments in the firm’s workshop in Carrara, Italy, until he died in 1873.
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Robert Swain Gifford (1840 – 1905) was an American painter and printmaker. He spent much of his youth in the coastal areas of Massachusetts and Connecticut, where he developed an affinity for New England land- and seascapes. In 1866, he settled in New York City, where he taught art for nearly thirty years at the Cooper Union School, and helped establish the New York Etching Club. He won medals at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and numerous other venues. His work is represented in a number of institutions, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

William Rudolf O'Donovan (1844 – 1920) was a successful self-taught sculptor. Born in Virginia, he served in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, he opened a studio in New York City and began his career as a well-regarded professional sculptor, producing many public monuments as well as portrait busts and bas reliefs of prominent persons, including Walt Whitman, Thomas Eakins, and George Washington.
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Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (1769 - 1832), known as Baron Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist widely admired for his research and publications on zoology and paleontology. Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils. He was perpetual secretary of the National Institute and as a public official was connected with public education generally. In 1808 he was placed by Napoleon upon the Council of the Imperial University.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia holds books by Cuvier on the subjects of zoology, geology, and paleontology in its Rare Book Collection.]]> ]]>
French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon was well known for portrait busts of public figures of the late 18th century. Houdon sculpted Benjamin Franklin’s likeness during Franklin’s tenure as American minister to France from 1776 to 1785. While only two marble versions of the bust are known to exist (one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Houdon also produced plaster versions such as this one in response to the public’s fascination with the popular American statesman.
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Architect Charles Garnier won the Paris Opera commission in 1861 over a field of nearly 200 contestants. Garnier and Carpeaux were friends, and Carpeaux executed many sculptural works for Garnier's finest building, the Opera. A version of this portrait bust greets visitors as they climb the grand stair of the Opera, and there is a third casting at the Louvre in Paris. Carpeaux was the most successful French sculptor of the mid-19th Century; he was widely recognized as the official sculptor of the Second French Empire.]]> ]]> ]]>