Greenough, Horatio
Greenough, Horatio (
b Boston, 6 Sept. 1805;
d Somerville, Mass., 18 Dec. 1852). American
Neoclassical sculptor who spent the greater part of his working life in Italy (1825–6, 1828–51). He is sometimes described as the first professional American sculptor and his major work, the colossal marble figure of George Washington (1833–41), was the first important state commission given to an American sculptor. It was originally placed in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, but is now in the National Museum of American History. The seated figure is based on
Phidias' celebrated statue of Zeus at Olympia, but the head follows
Houdon's portrait of Washington—an uneasy mixture of idealism and naturalism. Greenough's work is in general rather uninspiring, and the essays he wrote on art in the final decade of his life are considered more interesting; his views on architecture have been claimed as precursors of modern functionalism. His brother
Richard Saltonstall Greenough (1819–1904) was also a sculptor, best known for his statue of Benjamin Franklin (1855) outside Boston City Hall.
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The President's Monumental Woes
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 2/12/1988; ; 700+ words
; ...States be authorized to employ Horatio Greenough, of Massachusetts, to execute...In 1844 Congress evicted Greenough's giant to the grounds east...George Washington, or rather Horatio Greenough's effigy of the father of...
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Large Government Programs and Program Management in the U.S.
Magazine article from: Program Manager; 1/1/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...in the rotunda. American sculptor Horatio Greenough won the commission to execute this marble tribute. Greenough's classical training resulted in...deviated too far from spec." When Greenough's Washington was unveiled in 1841...
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AMERICAN BEAUTIES AT THE MFA, TREASURES FROM REVERE BOWLS TO PUEBLO POTS
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 1/11/1991; ; 700+ words
; ...to him and said, "I have a Greenough," i.e., a work by the great 19th-century sculptor Horatio Greenough. "Jerry," Fairbanks said, "Even the Met doesn't have a Greenough." But Jerry did. His father...
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 "Talk of the Nation (NPR)")
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Art Controversies
Transcript from: Talk of the Nation (NPR); 12/11/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...commissioned a sculptor named Horatio Greenough, probably the foremost American...sculpture from antiquity. And Greenough produced a seated statue of Washington...lighting was so poor that when Greenough arrived a year later, he pleaded...
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Where to Put George Washington
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 5/31/2002; 285 words
; ...America's Attic," front page, May 8]. When Horatio Greenough's heroic statue of George Washington was in the...ceiling!" If adequate space can't be found, the Greenough should be moved to the Smithsonian's Museum of American...
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This statue is among the most ...
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 6/1/2003; 424 words
; ...he isn't a mere king, he's a god. Sculptor Horatio Greenough based his carving on a wonder of the ancient world...National Museum of American History. -- Paul Richard Greenough's "Washington" is on the second floor of the Smithsonian...
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Ideal objects for a fictive homeland. (the works of Andy Warhol and Hiram Powers, A/D Gallery, New York, New York)
Magazine article from: Art in America; 5/1/1997; ; 700+ words
; ...heroic men. None of these sculptors--not even Horatio Greenough--was more famous than Powers, who sustained his...consciously patriotic American artists like Powers and Greenough spent most of their lives under foreign skies. In...
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Antiques.
Magazine article from: The Magazine Antiques; 9/1/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...common." The essence of beauty for the sculptor Horatio Greenough invoked action and function, as embodied in the locomotive...correspondingly important place within it. This caused Greenough to truthfully say in 1852: "There is, at present...
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AMERICA'S TEMPLE; Rooms of Capitol explored in paintings.(ARTS)(ON VIEW)
Newspaper article from: The Washington Times; 5/25/2002; 700+ words
; ...painting, mainly women dwarfed by the dome, walk near Horatio Greenough's heroic, partially draped sculpture of George...the "father of our country" is half-clothed. Greenough sneeringly boasted, according to an exhibition label...
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Boston Athenaeum at 200: a fascinating hodgepodge
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 2/16/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...Classical mode is a life-size nude Venus carved from marble in 1837-40 by Horatio Greenough, a native Bostonian who lived and worked with great success in Rome. Greenough's snowy Venus is a coolly voluptuous figure and the carved relief built...
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Horatio Greenough
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
Horatio Greenough , 1805-52, American sculptor and writer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard...Smithsonian Institution. The Rescue is on the east stairway of the Capitol. Greenough is admired now for his writings, in which he heralded the modern concept...
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Greenough, Horatio
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
Greenough, Horatio (1805–52). American...mixture of idealism and naturalism. Greenough's work is in general rather uninspiring...His brother, Richard Saltonstall Greenough (1819–1904), was also...
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Sculpture
Book article from: American Eras
...and the great Antonio Canova. Horatio Greenough, a Harvard graduate who had...Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. Greenough, who had studied anatomy and...but shocking to an American. Greenough also went to Florence to work...
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Photography
Book article from: American Eras
...Whitman change physically and grow older with each edition. FOUNDING FATHER In February 1832 Congress offered sculptor Horatio Greenough a commission to sculpt a full-length marble statue of George Washington to be placed in the capital rotunda. In...
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Wright, Frank Lloyd
Encyclopedia entry from: U*X*L Encyclopedia of World Biography
...building's form should reflect its plan, its functional arrangement of interior spaces, as Henry Latrobe and Horatio Greenough had proposed. There was, third, the belief that each building should express something new and distinctive in...
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