Biografie von Randolph John ROGERS (1825-1892)

Birth place: Waterloo, NY

Death place: Rome, Italy

Addresses: Most of his career was spent in Rome

Profession: Sculptor

Studied: Lorenzo Bartolini, Florence, Italy, 1848-51

Exhibited: NAD, 1852; PAFA Ann., 1867-68, 1878; Phila. Centennial, 1876 (Nydia"); Mark Hopkins Inst., 1903"

Work: MMA; PAFA; TMA; Newark (NJ) Mus. Art; Buffalo and Erie County Hist. Soc.; the Univ. of Mich. in Ann Arbor had most of his casts at one time, but few are extant today. Public works: John Adams," Memorial Hall, Harvard Univ.; "Columbus Doors," Eastern entrance to Rotunda, U.S. Capitol, Wash., DC; Soldier and Sailors' Monument, Detroit, Mich.; Soldier and Sailors' Monument, Providence, RI; "Lincoln," Fairmount Park, Phila."

Comments: Grew up in Ann Arbor, MI. Went to NYC about 1843 and spent the next five years as a clerk in Stewart's dry-goods store. During this time he began modeling portrait busts and so impressed his employers that, in 1848, they helped finance a trip for him to study in Italy. After three years in Florence he established his studio in Rome, and began executing ideal pieces in a neoclassical style, including Ruth" (1853, Toledo Mus.) and his most famous work, "Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii" (1855-56, MMA, PAFA, and elsewhere), of which almost 100 copies were made. Rogers came back to the U.S. in 1853-55, during which time he was awarded several major commissions, the most important of which was for a set of bronze doors, illustrating the life of Columbus, for the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. He returned to Rome in 1855 in order to complete them (they were installed in 1862) and remained there for the rest of his life, although he made many professional visits to the U.S. During those years, Rogers continued to make some ideal figures, including "The Lost Pleiad", but he was mostly busy with portrait busts and public monuments. Among his major achievements were his completion of Thomas Crawford's "Washington Monument (1861, Richmond, VA) and two post-Civil War Soldiers' and Sailors' Monuments (Providence, RI, 1871, and Detroit, MI, 1873). "The Last Arrow" (MMA) a bronze equestrian group showing an American Indian on a rearing horse shooting his last arrow, was modeled in 1880. Just two years later, Rogers was paralyzed and no longer able to work. Before his death, he shipped the casts of most of his works to the University of Michigan (see works).

Sources: G&W; DAB; Taft, History of American Sculpture; Fairman, Art and Artists of the Capitol. More recently, see Baigell, Dictionary; Millard F. Rogers, Jr., Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome (1971); Craven, Sculpture in America, 312-19; Hughes, Artists in California, 477; Falk, Exh. Record Series.

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