William Wetmore Story
William Wetmore Story (born February 12, 1819 in Salem , Massachusetts , † October 7, 1895 in Vallombrosa , Italy ) was an American sculptor , art critic and poet and author of some political and legal articles and books. After 1850 he lived mainly in Italy.
Life
origin
William Wetmore Story was the son of Joseph Story , US Supreme Court Justice , and Sarah Waldo Wetmore Story, daughter of a judge from Boston .
Legal activity and turn to the fine arts
Story first followed the tradition of the family in his career choice and studied until 1838 at Harvard College and then until 1840 law at Harvard Law School . He then worked with his father and was later admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
Story first traveled to Italy in 1848. In order to devote himself to art, he then gave up his legal career and from 1850 onwards spent most of his artistic career in Italy. He achieved some fame as a sculptor during his lifetime. In addition to his work on marble sculptures of ancient motifs such as Cleopatra , Medea or the Libyan Sibyl , he created several portrait busts.
William Story continued to write critical studies on Italian art and, for example, the art guide Roba di Roma on the city of Rome . His apartment in Rome in the Palazzo Barberini became a well-known artistic meeting place also for Americans traveling through.
The famous American romantic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne included a description of Story's Cleopatra in his 1860 short story The Marble Faun ; this made the work and sculptors widely known in the United States and Great Britain .
American Civil War article
William Wetmore Story 'wrote a series of letters about neutrality in conflict for the Daily News in 1861 about the American Civil War, which were published in a booklet after the war under the title The American Question , further on the same subject for magazines from the Blackwood & Bookstore. Sons in England who helped shape public opinion in England about the conflict. In 1863, Story was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
Tomb with angel of mourning
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William Wetmore Story is buried next to his wife Emelyn Story in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Emelyn Story died on January 7, 1895; her husband followed her on October 7th of the same year. Both tombs are the Angel of Mourning , created by Story himself , one of his most famous works today.
William Wetmore Story and Friends
The broad circle of friends of William Wetmore Story included the English Victorian poet couple Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning , whose works were also known in the United States, another Victorian poet Walter Savage Landor and, for example, the American romantic poet and diplomat James Russell Lowell , the American writer Henry James and other famous contemporaries. Critics point out that all of these friends were usually much better known than William Story himself.
When, after his death in 1895, the family commissioned a biography of William Wetmore Story from Henry James, he was able to create an interesting work by referring to this circle of friends.
progeny
- Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915), sculptor
- Julian Russell Story (1857-1919), well-known portrait painter
- Edith Marion (1844–1907), Marchesa Peruzzi de 'Medici, writer
literature
- Mary E. Phillips: Reminiscences of William Wetmore Story, the American Sculptor and Author . Chicago, 1897
- Henry James: William Wetmore Story and his Friends, From Letters, Diaries, and Recollections . 2 volumes, Edinburgh, London 1903
- Jessie B. Rittenhouse: Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900 . Cambridge 1915.
- Albert T. Gardner: William Story and Cleopatra : In: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin New Series, 2/4 (1943), pp. 147-152
- George Monteiro (Ed.): The Correspondence of Henry James and Henry Adams, 1877-1914 . Baton Rouge, London 1992
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Marble Faun , Chapter XIV A Sculptor's Studio
- ^ Hugh Chisholm : Story, William Wetmore . In: Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition). Cambridge 1911
Web links
- William Wetmore Story in nndb (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Story, William Wetmore |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sculptor, art critic, and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1819 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Salem , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 7, 1895 |
| Place of death | Vallombrosa , Italy |