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John Quincy Adams Ward, 1830-1910
John Quincy Adams Ward was the first distinctly American sculptor. His work resonates with the spirit of the age, rejecting Victorian sentimentality in favor of a hard-edged realism in representing forthrightly masculine figures. Even his allegorical subjects were remarkably realistic. For instance, Ward created Indian Hunter (1868), his first commission for Central Park, only after making an extensive study of Indians of the Northwest. His style appealed to the thrusting self-image of America's business and political leaders, as well as a public confident that America was emerging as an industrial and political power in the world.
Charles Henry Niehaus, 1911 cast after pre-1901 original |