Imogen
Plaster
17 3/16 x 6 3/8 x 6 inches
Biography
Erastus Dow Palmer is singled out among his 19th-century American contemporaries for being a self-taught artist who achieved financial success and critical acclaim for his bronze and marble sculptures. Born in Pompey, New York, he trained as a carpenter, worked as a cameo cutter, then pursued a career as a fine art sculptor after settling in Albany in 1849. In his many portraits of contemporary men and women, literary figures, and religious subjects, he advanced a style of American realism informed by aspects of classical art. He is best known for White Captive (1857-59), a lifesize marble of a young woman who, having been captured by American Indians, is shown stripped of her nightgown and tied to a post. With this work, Palmer intended to portray Christianity confronted by “the savage.” The sculpture is presently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
