Figurehead Modelc. 181018 × 5 3/4 × 6"Wood with traces of paintGift of Ralph Esmerian2005.8.560Allegorical figure of a woman in empire-waisted, flowing dress with flying drapery. Holding cornucopia with fruit and flowers upside down from proper right hand and left hand. Proper left hand is raised, string of jewels around neck. Long hair flowing behind to wood post.1545293368Artist unidentifiedSculptureThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain. United StatesThree Dimensional Works
While her small size indicates that she was not intended to be fitted on a ship, this early-nineteenth-century figure otherwise precisely replicates a full-scale figurehead. Carved in the latest style, with a flowing Empire gown and windswept hair and drapery, she holds a cornucopia of fruit and flowers that adds allegorical overtones to her fashionable appearance. As she strides forward, the outline of her left leg is visible under her gown, and although she has sustained some loss, it is evident that her left foot would have been posed on the scroll base.
This type of full-length, freestanding figurehead became popular in the United States in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Originally French, the style was widely admired for its naturalistic presence and sense of movement emphasized by a forward lean with one foot raised and supported on a scroll. Philadelphia sculptor and shipcarver William Rush is traditionally credited with introducing the type into this country. This example shares certain stylistic affinities with figureheads carved in the Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, area in the early nineteenth century, though, particularly in the handling of the face. Its vertical orientation further confirms its date, as ships of the period typically had straight-stemmed bows. Another notable detail is that it was carved with a lacing piece, post like timber on the back of a figurehead that was used to attach it to a vessel.
As an accurate, small-scale version, this figurehead might have been used as a model or a sign for a shipcarving workshop. A related example that is attributed to Salem carver Samuel McIntire is in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Stylistically different and slightly larger, it is thought to have been created for a similar purpose and never mounted on a ship.
Ralph Sessions, "Figurehead Model," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 541.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgsculpture18051815 2005 8 56 While her small size indicates that she was not intended to be fitted on a ship, this early-nineteenth-century figure otherwise precisely replicates a full-scale figurehead. Carved in the latest style, with a flowing Empire gown and windswept hair and drapery, she holds a cornucopia of fruit and flowers that adds allegorical overtones to her fashionable appearance. As she strides forward, the outline of her left leg is visible under her gown, and although she has sustained some loss, it is evident that her left foot would have been posed on the scroll base.
This type of full-length, freestanding figurehead became popular in the United States in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Originally French, the style was widely admired for its naturalistic presence and sense of movement emphasized by a forward lean with one foot raised and supported on a scroll. Philadelphia sculptor and shipcarver William Rush is traditionally credited with introducing the type into this country. This example shares certain stylistic affinities with figureheads carved in the Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, area in the early nineteenth century, though, particularly in the handling of the face. Its vertical orientation further confirms its date, as ships of the period typically had straight-stemmed bows. Another notable detail is that it was carved with a lacing piece, post like timber on the back of a figurehead that was used to attach it to a vessel.
As an accurate, small-scale version, this figurehead might have been used as a model or a sign for a shipcarving workshop. A related example that is attributed to Salem carver Samuel McIntire is in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Stylistically different and slightly larger, it is thought to have been created for a similar purpose and never mounted on a ship.
Ralph Sessions, "Figurehead Model," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 541.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgsculpture