Ashbel Parsons Willard (bust)
Encyclopedia
Ashbel Parsons Willard is a piece of public art
by American
sculptor Henry Dexter, located on the second floor or third level (including the basement) of the Indiana Statehouse, located between Washington Street and Ohio Street in Indianapolis
, the capital of Indiana
, a U.S. state
. The bust
is located in a niche
outside the central rotunda
. It faces north and is on the eastern side of the rotunda.
The sculpture is a plaster cast
, which has been painted with many layers of white paint. A maker's mark embossed on the front side of the base states it was made in Boston
, Massachusetts
. This formerly unknown bust is actually a part of a series of thirty one portrait busts created by the artist Henry Dexter in an 18-month period between 1859-1860. The bust is actually a copy of the original which is part of the Smithsonian's collection. The maker's mark is difficult to read due to the many coats of paint which may be the reason the bust has been unidentified up to this point. The layers of paint have been added over the years, and largely obscure the mark, but it seems to identify 1860 as the date of its manufacture. This date is historically concurrent with the year of Governor Ashbel Parsons Willard's death.
The proper right and proper left sides of the bust show signs of wear with the plaster visible along front-facing edges all the way down the base. The bust was likely cast as one whole piece and then painted white to give a uniform and finished look to the work. The rear-facing side has an inscription written in cursive script which reads: Gov. Willard, Ind.. The bust has a hollow cavity and the plaster is approximately 1-2 in. thick throughout the sculpture. The plaster appears to be of highly quality, possibly stucco which is a mixture of lime, marble dust and other organic materials.
The bust has a rather stoic facial expression similar to the painting of Governor Willard done by portrait painter George W. Morrison. However, Dexter's portrait gives Willard a fuller mouth and a more narrow nose than the Morrison painting. His hair style is similar in both works, it is parted on the proper left hand side and combed over the crown of the head. His hair has long curling locks that add volume to the sides and back of the head and hang just below his earlobes. This style is in keeping with men's hairstyles in the late 1850s early 1860s.
of Michigan
was drafted. The letter is dated April 25, 1860. Dexter traveled by rails to move his supplies so it is safe to assume he arrived in Indianapolis, in late April or early May depending on when he left Michigan. There is no record of his time there, but that time in Governor Willard's life was tumultuous. He was under investigation for defrauding the state and misappropriating funds in the construction of the Northern Indiana State Prison. He was also ailing and his increasingly poor health, due to his life long battle with tuberculosis
, lead to his early death. He died October 4, 1860, the first Indiana governor to die in office. Willard was also the youngest governor ever elected to the position.
Dexter had hoped to inspire the state to purchase a copy of his portrait bust, but Willard was unpopular at the time when Dexter modeled him, so it is unknown how the state came to acquire the plaster bust that now sits in the statehouse. The original bust, which has a larger base, 15.5 inches (39.4 cm) by 10.5 inches (26.7 cm), is currently in the collection of Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. It is part of the catalog listing for the National Portrait Gallery.
Henry Dexter's creation of thirty one portrait busts of governors in the year period between June 1859 and June 24, 1860, recorded some of the most remarkable men in power on the cusp of the American Civil War
. Several of the men who modeled for Dexter's busts later went on to be primary council to President Abraham Lincoln
and held various military positions in the great conflict between the North and South.
he was apprenticed to a blacksmith shortly after his father's death when his family moved to Connecticut. Dexter taught himself to paint, but was aided in the process by artist Francis Alexander
who was his wife's uncle. He moved to Boston in 1836 and opened his own portrait studio. 2 years later he began to sculpt famous people, starting with the Reverend Dr. Anderson. Dexter was completely self taught and did not seek to study the European or classical Greek styles of his compatriots, for this reason he is considered among the first true American sculptors.
Henry Dexter sculpted over 200 busts in plaster and marble between the years of 1838 and 1875. Some of his most famous sculptures are his portraits of Charles Dickens
and President James Buchanan. His depiction of President Buchanan was later used to model his U.S. postage stamp which was part of a series depicting the presidents of the United States.
Henry Dexter was a patriot who hoped to create a gallery of sculptural works depicting the president of the United States and the governors of every US state in the late 1850s on the cusp of the Civil War. He hoped to achieve a unifying official portrait of this period in America's history. This initiative was self-funded at its conception, utilizing his own moneys Dexter traveled some 20,000 miles with all of his tools for modeling and casting. His initial plan was to model each governor in clay and later plaster and with the hope that individual states would then purchase marble renderings post facto for the sum of $500, thus helping him recuperate his costs. This gigantic undertaking began in 1859 as Dexter first traveled to every state in New England having governors of each state sit for him and sending the modeled clay busts back to his workshop in Boston. He then began to work his way along the Mason-Dixon line
and finally across the South. He returned to the North to model the recently deceased Governor William Henry Bissell
of Illinois before heading to Wisconsin and presumably Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana between the months of April - June 1860. It is likely that Dexter was in Indiana in late April or early May given a letter of introductory correspondence between Michigan Governor Moses Wisner
to Governor Willard dated April 25, 1860. (Governor Willard died in October 1860).
This expedition resulted in thirty one finished busts which were intended to be displayed in the Capitol building
in Washington, D.C. However, due to the volatility bred by the recent secession of the Southern states, the totality of the collection was not able to be displayed. By his own admission this endeavor was a failure financially, it left him impoverished for years after his eighteen months of travel across the country. However, historically Dexter's renderings of some of the prominent gubernatorial figures of the United States became a study of many of the most powerful men who were key players in the Civil War. Far from being aware of the long term historical significance of his work Dexter hoped only to accomplish a unifying collection of the nation's administrators.
After his death June 23, 1876, the bulk of his collection of governors was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1889. Some of the busts remain with private owners or in the collections of some of the states who purchased copies for their own collections.
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor Henry Dexter, located on the second floor or third level (including the basement) of the Indiana Statehouse, located between Washington Street and Ohio Street in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, the capital of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, a U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
. The bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
is located in a niche
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
outside the central rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
. It faces north and is on the eastern side of the rotunda.
The sculpture is a plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
, which has been painted with many layers of white paint. A maker's mark embossed on the front side of the base states it was made in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. This formerly unknown bust is actually a part of a series of thirty one portrait busts created by the artist Henry Dexter in an 18-month period between 1859-1860. The bust is actually a copy of the original which is part of the Smithsonian's collection. The maker's mark is difficult to read due to the many coats of paint which may be the reason the bust has been unidentified up to this point. The layers of paint have been added over the years, and largely obscure the mark, but it seems to identify 1860 as the date of its manufacture. This date is historically concurrent with the year of Governor Ashbel Parsons Willard's death.
Description
The sculpture is 23.5 inches (59.7 cm) from crown to base. The base is 9 inches (22.9 cm) by 11.5 inches (29.2 cm) and the circumference of the head is 24.5 inches (62.2 cm). It has an oval makers mark embossed on the bottom of the front side. The makers mark reads: HENRY DEXTER FECIT, BOSTON 1860, COPY RIGHT SECURED.The proper right and proper left sides of the bust show signs of wear with the plaster visible along front-facing edges all the way down the base. The bust was likely cast as one whole piece and then painted white to give a uniform and finished look to the work. The rear-facing side has an inscription written in cursive script which reads: Gov. Willard, Ind.. The bust has a hollow cavity and the plaster is approximately 1-2 in. thick throughout the sculpture. The plaster appears to be of highly quality, possibly stucco which is a mixture of lime, marble dust and other organic materials.
The bust has a rather stoic facial expression similar to the painting of Governor Willard done by portrait painter George W. Morrison. However, Dexter's portrait gives Willard a fuller mouth and a more narrow nose than the Morrison painting. His hair style is similar in both works, it is parted on the proper left hand side and combed over the crown of the head. His hair has long curling locks that add volume to the sides and back of the head and hang just below his earlobes. This style is in keeping with men's hairstyles in the late 1850s early 1860s.
Historical information
The bust of Ashbel Parsons Willard was executed by Henry Dexter sometime after the letter of introduction from Governor Moses WisnerMoses Wisner
Moses Wisner was a politician and soldier from the U.S. state of Michigan.-Early life in New York:Wisner was born in Springport, New York and received an education in the common schools while working on his parent's farm. In 1837, he moved to Michigan and settled on a farm in Lapeer County...
of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
was drafted. The letter is dated April 25, 1860. Dexter traveled by rails to move his supplies so it is safe to assume he arrived in Indianapolis, in late April or early May depending on when he left Michigan. There is no record of his time there, but that time in Governor Willard's life was tumultuous. He was under investigation for defrauding the state and misappropriating funds in the construction of the Northern Indiana State Prison. He was also ailing and his increasingly poor health, due to his life long battle with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, lead to his early death. He died October 4, 1860, the first Indiana governor to die in office. Willard was also the youngest governor ever elected to the position.
Dexter had hoped to inspire the state to purchase a copy of his portrait bust, but Willard was unpopular at the time when Dexter modeled him, so it is unknown how the state came to acquire the plaster bust that now sits in the statehouse. The original bust, which has a larger base, 15.5 inches (39.4 cm) by 10.5 inches (26.7 cm), is currently in the collection of Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. It is part of the catalog listing for the National Portrait Gallery.
Henry Dexter's creation of thirty one portrait busts of governors in the year period between June 1859 and June 24, 1860, recorded some of the most remarkable men in power on the cusp of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Several of the men who modeled for Dexter's busts later went on to be primary council to President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and held various military positions in the great conflict between the North and South.
Artist
Henry Dexter (1806–1876) was a prominent American sculptor in the 19th century. Born in Nelson, New YorkNelson, New York
Nelson is a town in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 1,964 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Horatio Nelson, the English naval hero....
he was apprenticed to a blacksmith shortly after his father's death when his family moved to Connecticut. Dexter taught himself to paint, but was aided in the process by artist Francis Alexander
Francis Alexander
Francis Alexander was an American portrait-painter.He was born in Killingly, Connecticut. Brought up on a farm, he taught himself the use of colors, and in 1820 went to New York City and studied painting with Alexander Robertson. He spent the winters of 1831 and 1832 in Rome...
who was his wife's uncle. He moved to Boston in 1836 and opened his own portrait studio. 2 years later he began to sculpt famous people, starting with the Reverend Dr. Anderson. Dexter was completely self taught and did not seek to study the European or classical Greek styles of his compatriots, for this reason he is considered among the first true American sculptors.
Henry Dexter sculpted over 200 busts in plaster and marble between the years of 1838 and 1875. Some of his most famous sculptures are his portraits of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and President James Buchanan. His depiction of President Buchanan was later used to model his U.S. postage stamp which was part of a series depicting the presidents of the United States.
Henry Dexter was a patriot who hoped to create a gallery of sculptural works depicting the president of the United States and the governors of every US state in the late 1850s on the cusp of the Civil War. He hoped to achieve a unifying official portrait of this period in America's history. This initiative was self-funded at its conception, utilizing his own moneys Dexter traveled some 20,000 miles with all of his tools for modeling and casting. His initial plan was to model each governor in clay and later plaster and with the hope that individual states would then purchase marble renderings post facto for the sum of $500, thus helping him recuperate his costs. This gigantic undertaking began in 1859 as Dexter first traveled to every state in New England having governors of each state sit for him and sending the modeled clay busts back to his workshop in Boston. He then began to work his way along the Mason-Dixon line
Mason-Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...
and finally across the South. He returned to the North to model the recently deceased Governor William Henry Bissell
William Henry Bissell
William Henry Bissell was the 11th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1857 until his death. He was one of the first successful Republican Party candidates, winning the election of 1856 just two years after the founding of his party.Bissell was born in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York...
of Illinois before heading to Wisconsin and presumably Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana between the months of April - June 1860. It is likely that Dexter was in Indiana in late April or early May given a letter of introductory correspondence between Michigan Governor Moses Wisner
Moses Wisner
Moses Wisner was a politician and soldier from the U.S. state of Michigan.-Early life in New York:Wisner was born in Springport, New York and received an education in the common schools while working on his parent's farm. In 1837, he moved to Michigan and settled on a farm in Lapeer County...
to Governor Willard dated April 25, 1860. (Governor Willard died in October 1860).
This expedition resulted in thirty one finished busts which were intended to be displayed in the Capitol building
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
in Washington, D.C. However, due to the volatility bred by the recent secession of the Southern states, the totality of the collection was not able to be displayed. By his own admission this endeavor was a failure financially, it left him impoverished for years after his eighteen months of travel across the country. However, historically Dexter's renderings of some of the prominent gubernatorial figures of the United States became a study of many of the most powerful men who were key players in the Civil War. Far from being aware of the long term historical significance of his work Dexter hoped only to accomplish a unifying collection of the nation's administrators.
After his death June 23, 1876, the bulk of his collection of governors was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1889. Some of the busts remain with private owners or in the collections of some of the states who purchased copies for their own collections.
See also
- Abraham Lincoln (Jones)
- Daniel W. Voorhees (Voorhees)
- Frank O'Bannon (Ryden)
- George Rogers Clark (McLary)
- Matthew E. Welsh (Edwards)
- Otis Bowen (Lanagan)
- Robert D. Orr (Ingle)
- William H. English (Indianapolis)