Biografie von Erastus Dow PALMER (1817-1904)

Birth place: Pompey, near Syracuse, NY

Death place: Albany, NY

Addresses: Albany, NY, 1846-1904

Profession: Sculptor, teacher

Studied: apprenticed to a carpenter; self-taught as sculptor.

Exhibited: NAD, 1851-63; Phila. Centenn. Expo, 1876 (med.); PAFA Ann., 1851-77, 1894; Church of the Divine Unity, NYC, 1856 (a solo show titled the "Palmer Marbles," displaying Palmer's marble relief medallions)

Member: NA (hon. mem., prof.); NSS.

Work: Albany (NY) Inst.( portrait busts, reliefs :"Morning and Evening"); MMA ("The Dawn of Christianity",1856,"White Captive," 1859) He made many ideal figures and, in 1874, executed the statue of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, of New York, for the Capitol at Wash.

Comments: Romantic sculptor. Began as a carpenter and in about 1840 married and moved to Utica, NY, where he built a home and worked as a patternmaker (carving wooden molds) for local industry. About 1845, he attempted cameo-cutting and soon achieved success, moving, In 1846, to Albany where he set up a studio and continued to produce cameo portraits. In 1848 he began modeling in clay and attempting marble pieces, and was soon producing portrait busts and ideal works. Palmer did quite well in Albany but also gained attention in NYC, where he began exhibiting in 1851 (NAD), receiving much critical praise. His most famous work, "The White Captive" (1859), which depicted a nude, young Christian woman tied to a post (in the captivity of American Indians), inspired much romantic, melodramatic prose in newspaper and magazines describing the plight of the chaste young woman who is said to have to endure the ungodly savagery of her captors. Throughout his career, Palmer also sold high-quality photographs of his sculpture; these sold well in the U.S. and in Europe and increased interest in his work, bringing him requests for replicas. Unlike most of his American sculptor contemporaries, he did not visit Europe until late in his career, traveling to France in 1873. Of his pupils at Albany, Launt Thompson (see entry) was probably the best known. His son, Walter Launt Palmer, was also an artist.

Sources: G&W; DAB; Clement and Hutton; Gardner, Yankee Stonecutters; Cowdrey, NAD; Naylor, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Rutledge, PA; Falk, PA, vol. 2; Swan, BA. More recently, see Baigell, Dictionary; Craven, Sculpture in America 158-66