File:Edward Valentine - The Nation's Ward.jpg

Identifier: americanartamer01mont (find matches)
Title: American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Montgomery, Walter
Subjects: Art Artists Art
Publisher: Boston, E.W. Walker & co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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he public in Richmond, where it created the profoundest sensation The hero is lying in his uniform, as if in sleep, upon his narrow soldiers bed. One hand is on his bosom, and touches, unconsciouslyand gently, the drapery of his couch. The other is lying by his side, where it has fallen,and rests upon his sword. The portraiture is perfect, no less as to form than feature. Thewhole expression is that of tranquil and absolute repose, — the repose of physical power,unshaken though dormant, — of manly grace most graceful when at rest, — of noble facultiesalive and sovereign though still. An English gentleman, a traveller who saw it while it was yet in the studio, writes of it: We confess to feelings ofgazed at Valentines splen-Virginia had such a son.modern masters in Europe,greater power, conception,monument. A writer in aeral lies upon a sarcopha-slightly raised, in a gentleespecially succeeded in pre-pression of the living body:It is Lee as he was, — ashim: the work has nothing
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profound astonishment as we firstdid sculpture. We felt proud thatWe had seen the works of greatbut never had we seen one ofand execution than this LeeGerman paper says: The Gen-gus, the upper part of the body slumber Mr. Valentine has serving the warm and living im-it is not the countenance of death,the people of the South knewof the cold, disconsolate look of The Nations Ward. — By Edward V. Valentine. death about it; the artist has animated it with the warm breath of peace. A critic in TheRichmond Enquirer, commenting upon a saying of Thorwaldsens, that he did not fear his ownconception, says the truth, and purity, and strength of Mr. Valentines modelling is such thathe verifies the remark of the great Dane, — he did not fear his own conception. His ambi-tion was exalted, and he searched for his ideal in a field of art where the dividing line betweensuccess and failure is so exact as to render the ground treacherous, and the undertaking danger-ous. Between the extremes of the m

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