Henry Kirke Brown

Henry Kirke Brown (February 24, 1814 in Leyden, Massachusetts – July 10, 1886 in Newburgh, New York) was an American sculptor.

Life

He began to paint portraits while still a boy, studied painting in Boston under Chester Harding, learned a little about modelling, and in 1836-1839 spent his summers working as a railroad engineer to earn enough to enable him to study further.

He spent four years (1842–1846) in Italy; but returning to New York he wanted to ensure he remained distinctively American. He bemoaned the fact that so many of the early American sculptors were dominated by Italian influence. Even so, his work combines American subject matter with the style of the Italian masters, such as Donatello.

He produced the small, bronze statuette ''The Choosing of the Arrow'' for distribution by the American Art Union, in 1849.
His equestrian statues are excellent, notably that of George Washington (1856) in Union Square, New York City, which was the second equestrian statue made in the United States, following by three years that of Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C. by Clark Mills (1815–1883), and of Brevet Lt. General Winfield Scott (1874) in Washington, D.C.. Brown was one of the first in America to cast his own bronzes. In 1847, Brown was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1851.

Among his other works are: statue of Abraham Lincoln (Union Square, New York City); Nathanael Greene, George Clinton, Philip Kearny, and Richard Stockton (all in the National Statuary Hall, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.); De Witt Clinton (''illustration, below'') and ''The Angel of the Resurrection'', both in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York; and an Aboriginal Hunter.

''The New York Times'' remarked that the ''DeWitt Clinton'' was the first American full-length sculpture cast in a single piece, when it was exhibited temporarily in City Hall Park in 1855.

Family

His nephew and adopted son, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, was also a sculptor and pupil of Brown's.

Gallery

Image:DeWitt-Clinton-at-Green-Wood.jpg, DeWitt Clinton Memorial, 1855, at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn
File:General Winfield Scott statue (45726769).jpg, ''Brevet Lt. General Winfield Scott'' Scott Circle
File:HK Brown Statue Abraham Lincoln.png, ''Abraham Lincoln'' at Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
File:GWashington Union Sq jeh.jpg, ''George Washington'', at Union Square
File:Washington Statue in Fall from PAO.jpg, ''Washington Monument'' at West Point
File:Greene-brown.jpg, '' Major General Nathanael Greene, at Stanton Park
File:Phil Kearny Newark NJ.JPG, General Philip Kearny in Newark, New Jersey
File:Angel of the Resurrection (front view), James B. Hogg Monument, Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA - March 2016.JPG, ''Angel of the Resurrection'' on James B. Hogg monument, ca. 1850, Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Additional information

Henry Kirke Brown Papers, 1814-1886Sophia Smith Collection
Smith College.

Notes

External links

"Brown, Henry Kirke, 1814-1886, sculptor"
''SIRIS''
"Henry Kirke Brown papers, 1836-1893"
Archives of American Art''
Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Brown (see index)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Henry Kirke
1814 births
1886 deaths

19th-century American sculptors
19th-century American male artists
American expatriates in Italy
American male sculptors
People from Leyden, Massachusetts
National Academy of Design members
People from Newburgh, New York
Sculptors from Massachusetts
Sculptors from New York (state)