''Philip Kearny'' is an 1888
bronze sculpture of
Philip Kearny by
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 lit ...
, installed in the
United States Capitol, in
Washington, D.C., as part of the
National Statuary Hall Collection. It is one of two statues donated by the state of
New Jersey.
Description and history
The statue portrays Kearny dressed in the uniform of a
Civil War general, holding a sword in his right hand. His coat draped over his left shoulder covers the fact that his left arn had been amputated following the
Battle of Churubusco
The Battle of Churubusco took place on August 20, 1847, while Santa Anna's army was in retreat from the Battle of Contreras or Battle of Padierna during the Mexican–American War. It was the battle where the San Patricio Battalion, made up ...
.
Although the statue entered the Hall in 1888 it is dated "1873" on the base. Kearny, described by
William Walter Phelps while accepting the statue into the collection on August 21, 1888, called Kearny "the perfect soldier . . .brave as a lion, tender as a woman." A bill to replace the statue in the Capitol with one of suffragist
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ...
passed the New Jersey Senate on February 10, 2020.
There are at least three other castings of the statue. One done in 1901 is located in Kearny Park,
Muskegon, Michigan.
Another was dedicated in 1880 in
Trenton, New Jersey and then relocated several times, finally to
Military Park in
Newark, New Jersey. The Archives of American Art traced the some what complicated history of the statue. "In March 1868, the New Jersey legislature approved funding for a bronze portrait of Major General Philip Kearny to be placed in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. The cast was finished in 1873, but on its way to Washington, the statue was diverted to the State House in Trenton where it ended up in an obscure hallway. In 1880, the mistake was discovered and concerned citizens of Newark petitioned to relocate the sculpture to its original destination in Statuary Hall, and if not there, then to a suitable location in Newark, where Kearney was born and raised. The petition was successful and in 1880, the statue was installed to Newark's Military Park on a Quincy granite base designed by Henry Kirke Brown and architect Paul G. Botticher to resemble an embankment in a war fortification." It was added as a key contributing object to the
Military Park Commons Historic District
Military Park is a city park in Downtown Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Along with Lincoln Park, Newark, Lincoln Park and Washington Park (Newark), Washington Park, it makes up the three downtown pa ...
on June 18, 2004.
[ With ]
In 1993, the Newark statue was knocked off its base. In the process of restoring it a cast was taken and another version of the work was created, this one placed in
Kearny, New Jersey, a town named after the general and dedicated on September 10, 1993.
See also
*
Statues of the National Statuary Hall Collection
*
List of public art in Newark, New Jersey
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, New Jersey, Visual arts, United States
1873 sculptures
1888 establishments in Washington, D.C.
1888 sculptures
1993 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in Washington, D.C.
Monuments and memorials in Michigan
Monuments and memorials in New Jersey
Monuments and memorials in Washington, D.C.
Kearny, Philip
Sculptures by Henry Kirke Brown
Sculptures of men in Michigan
Sculptures of men in New Jersey
Sculptures of men in Washington, D.C.
Statues in Michigan
Statues in New Jersey