William Rimmer (20 February 181620 August 1879) was an American artist born in

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

Biography

William Rimmer was the son of a French refugee, who emigrated to

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, where he was joined by his wife and child in 1818, and who in 1826 moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where he earned a living as a shoemaker. Rimmer's father "believed himself to be the French dauphin, the son of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

and Marie Antoinette. " The son learned the father's trade; at fifteen became a draughtsman and sign-painter; then worked for a

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

; opened a studio and painted some ecclesiastical pictures. In 1840 Rimmer made a tour of New England painting portraits, he lived in

Randolph, Massachusetts "To Say What One Feels" , pushpin_map = , pushpin_label_position = right , pushpin_label = , pushpin_map_caption = Location in Massachusetts , coordinates = , s ...

, in 1845–1855 as a shoemaker, for the last years of the decade practising medicine; practised in East Chelsea, Massachusetts and received a diploma from the Suffolk County Medical Society and in 1855 removed to East Milton, Massachusetts where he supplemented his income by carving busts from blocks of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. In 1860 Rimmer made his head of ''St. Stephen'' and in 1861 his ''Falling Gladiator''. Rimmer's sculptures, except those mentioned and ''The Fighting Lions'', ''A Dying Centaur'', and a

statue of Alexander Hamilton Statue of Alexander Hamilton may refer to: * Statue of Alexander Hamilton (Boston) * Statue of Alexander Hamilton (Central Park) * Statue of Alexander Hamilton (Chicago) * Statue of Alexander Hamilton (Columbia University) * Statue of Alexande ...

(made in 1865 for the city of Boston), were soon destroyed. He worked in clay, not modelling but building up and chiselling; almost always without models or preliminary sketches; and always under technical disadvantages and in great haste; but his sculpture is anatomically remarkable and has an early

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

simplicity and strength. From 1866 to 1870 he was director of the Cooper Union School of Design for Women in New York City. Among his pupils there was Ella Ferris Pell. He died in South Milford, Mass., on Aug. 20, 1879. Rimmer published ''Elements of Design'' (1864) and ''Art Anatomy'' (1877), but his great work was in the classroom, where his lectures were illustrated with blackboard sketches. Rimmer's most famous work, though not normally associated with him, is ''Evening: Fall of Day'', which was the basis for the Swan Song Records logo that the English rock group

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

used. Another celebrated painting is his ''Flight and Pursuit'' in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His daughter

Caroline Hunt Rimmer Caroline Hunt Rimmer (October 10, 1851 məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ..., the daughter of Mary H. C. Rimmer and William Rimmer. She s ...

was also a sculptor and noted author of ''Figure Drawing for Children''.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rimmer, William 1816 births 1879 deaths 19th-century American sculptors American male sculptors British emigrants to the United States People from Milton, Massachusetts Artists from Liverpool 19th century in Boston 19th-century American painters American male painters 19th-century male artists Painters from Massachusetts Sculptors from Massachusetts Cooper Union faculty