William Henry Rinehart

William Henry Rinehart 1825-74, American sculptor, b. near Union Bridge, Md. A Baltimore stonecutter, he became one of the best of the early American sculptors, working in the classic vein. He lived in Italy after 1858. His works are best seen in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, where there are casts of 42 of his figures, reliefs, and busts and 3 marble originals, including his masterpiece, Clytie. He left a fund for the education of American sculptors, first used in 1895.

Rinehart, William Henry (b nr. Union Bridge, Md., 13 Sept. 1825; d Rome, 28 Oct. 1874). American sculptor. After spending his early career as a stonecutter in Baltimore, he settled in Rome in 1855, and became one of the leading American expatriate Neoclassical sculptors of his generation. His work included mythological and allegorical subjects and (in a more naturalistic style) portraits, but he is perhaps best known for the rather maudlin Sleeping Children (1859–60); this was originally made for Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, but it was so popular that Rinehardt produced more than twenty replicas of it. He left the bulk of his estate to promote the appreciation of sculpture and enable American sculptors to study abroad.