Henry Kirke Brown and the development of American public sculpture in New York City, 1846--1876

This dissertation is the fast extensive study of Henry Kirke Brown (1814--1886), an artist who revolutionized civic sculpture in the United States. Among the fast professionally trained American sculptors, Brown studied sculpture in Italy yet questioned the relevance of European monuments as models for civic art in a democratic society. He set the standard for future decades by sculpting historically conscious, realist portraits in bronze in response to the neoclassical marble statues that dominated civic art from the American Revolution through the mid-nineteenth century. Brown's work methods and philosophy were of lasting influence on future generations of sculptors.; The five chapters of my dissertation chart the factors that led to both Brown's success as a professional sculptor and to increasing national interest in erecting public monuments in nineteenth-century America. Chapter I discusses Brown's training in Italy and his motives for returning to the United States and establishing a studio in New York City. Chapters II and III, respectively, look at Brown's commissions for De Witt Clinton (1853) in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn and George Washington (1856) in Union Square, Manhattan. Chapter IV considers Brown's time in Washington, D.C., where he served on the short-lived National Art Commission of 1859--1860 and helped to found National Statuary Hall. The last chapter examines Brown's monument Abraham Lincoln (1869) in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and Abraham Lincoln (1870) in Union Square.; All of these monuments commemorate a statesman of national repute; the four commissions were mile markers in the history of American sculpture. Designed to serve simultaneously as secular shrines, didactic tools, and tourist attractions, these four commissions also exemplify how Brown keenly designed his monuments to play multiple roles in American society. This study also considers the shift in choice of medium in American monuments from marble to bronze, the role of private patrons in commissioning public monuments, and the general changes in the sculpture industry during Brown's lifetime.