Existing comment:
John Rogers
The Slave Auction
1859
The Wounded Scout, a Friend in the Swamp
1864
both painted plaster
Rogers created plaster sculptures designed for a wide audience; however, his hard-hitting subjects confronting slavery were most popular within the abolitionist community. The Frémonts owned versions of both sculptures seen here as part of a small art collection devoted to the abolition of slavery and the promotion of California as a free state. The Slave Auction proved to be too difficult a subject for most people and, of the thirty casts sold, only five are known today. The Wounded Scout shows a fugitive slave assisting a wounded soldier. The copperhead snake coiled at his feet is a symbol of anti–Civil War Democrats who advocated an immediate settlement with the Confederacy and, in some cases, undermined the Union. This was among the artist's most popular Civil War subjects; Rogers sent a copy of The Wounded Scout to President Abraham Lincoln.
Albany Institute of History & Art, Gift of Mrs. Ledyard Cogswell Jr., from the Benjamin Walworth Arnold Collection; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Rogers and Son, 1882.1.5 |