Randolph John Rogers, A Pair of Native American Sculptures

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The Tatti Family Collection | February 19, 20...

By Brunk Auctions

Feb 19, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-02-19 10:00:00 2025-02-19 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Tatti Family Collection | February 19, 2025 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/brunk/the-tatti-family-collection-february-19-2025-15638
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• Lot Description

  (New York/Michigan, 1825-1892)

  Indian Fisher Girl; 34 x 18 x 13 in.; Indian Hunter Boy, 38-7/8 x 16 x 14 in., both signed at bottom "Randolph Rogers Rome", circa 1866, Carrara marble 

  Provenance: Kansas City Public Library, 9th and Locust, (building and contents sold, 1960); US Trade School, Inc., 9th and Locust, Kansas City, (contents auctioned, Autumn, 1983); Private Collection, Kansas City, MO; The Tatti Family Collection

  Comparative Literature:  Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, Official Catalogue of the Works of Painting Sculpture and Engraving Exhibited in the Art Department , 1872 ( described as Randolph Rodgers: Indian Hunter Boy # 5 Indian Fisher Girl # 6 owned by L. C. Hopkins ); Millard F. Rogers, Jr. Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome, University of Massachusetts Press, 1972, p. 99, p. 210; Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America, 2nd Edition, Newark, University of Delaware Press, NY and London, 1984; Vivien Green Fryd, “Randolph Rogers Indian Hunter Boy: Allegory of Innocence”, Elvehjem Museum of Art Bulletin, 1986, pages, 29-37; H. Nicholas B. Clark, A Marble Quarry: The James H. Ricau Collection of Sculpture at the Chrysler Museum of Art, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997, pp. 204-6; Thayer Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume I: A Catalogue of Works by Artist Born before 1865, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 114-120.  

  Note: Rogers, a prominent neoclassical sculptor had already received public recognition and success, as well as the prestigious commission for the US Capitol building doors by the outbreak of the Civil War. He remained working in Rome during the war and was busy with large scale bronze memorials including private commissions (i.e- Samuel Colt‘s tomb) as well as public and military sculptures resulting from the conflict. At the same time that he was sculpting these “monuments to the dead”, he continued working in marble in his recognized style utilizing both biblical and literary subjects. The present marbles - Indian Fisher Girl and Indian Hunter Boy both charming depictions of young Native American children - are unusual as they are not derived from any known source - literary, legendary or historical. Vivien Green Fryd presented a thorough analysis of the version of Indian Hunter Boy at the Elvehjem Museum, now the Chazen Museum (see attached article). In her thesis she focuses on the subject of depictions of childhood in 19th Century sculpture. “This chubby child is an Americanized version of an angelic cupid whose traditional attributes, nakedness, wings, and bow and arrow, are assimilated into the subject of an Indian hunter. As a cupid-like infant carved in white marble (a medium that by itself evoked thoughts of purity), Rogers’ Indian is a saintly child.” The other artistic tradition of depictions of childhood that the author discusses is that of the naughty child. But that relates more to the genre tradition of truancy. Rogers carved only one other marble of a child - The Truant of 1854 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC). This delightful work of a boy ice skating is related to a visual and literary tradition of naughtiness which can be seen in many paintings and sculpture of the 1850’s, mainly produced for the American market. Artists such as Lilly Martin Spencer, Thomas Crawford, William Sidney Mount and David Blythe made their reputations with such works. Moreover the interpretation of the bad boy (i.e.- mischievous rebel) by 20th century authors as an Indian (the noble savage) is improbable and based on later American literature.  The present marble, especially in context with the Indian Fisher Girl is not a genre sculpture. One must address Indian Fisher Girl as a pendant to the boy, as the duo forms an iconographic tableau. Because she did not know the existence of the pair at the Meijer Sculpture Gardens (Gift of Chris and Charlotte Southwick), nor of those that had been in the collection of LC Hopkins in Cincinnati (in 1872), nor the present pair, Fryd’s analysis is based on an interpretation of Indian Hunter Boy as a single figure. According to Roger’s biographer, these marbles were conceived as companion pieces, although each was available as a single work. Harriet Hosmer had earlier created two marbles of children, also offered as a pair or singly. These, Puck (1856) and Will – o’– the Wisp were extremely popular (over 50 examples of Puck were sold). So it is logical to assume that Rogers was inspired by the success- both critical and financial of his fellow American sculptor (also living in Rome) to make his charming and hopefully lucrative pair of children. Rogers had had earlier commercial success with both Ruth Gleaning of 1850 (50 known copies) and Nydia the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii - “the single most popular nineteenth-century American sculpture.” Over 167 replicas were made in two sizes over the course of 40 years. The most compelling justification for the pair of marbles is Fryd’s citing of an article in The Crayon in 1856. The magazine “advocated the native as an appropriate subject in American art, explaining: It should be held in dutiful remembrance that he (the Indian) is fast passing away from the face of the earth. Soon the last red man will have faded forever from his native land and those who come after us will trust to our scanty records for their knowledge of his habits and appearance…Seen in his primitive garb, the wild, untamed denizen of an unknown country, he is a sublimely eloquent representative of the hidden recesses and also of the mental solitude of the uncivilized wilderness.”   Rogers had earlier incorporated the Native American subject into Atala and Chactas (1854, Tulane University Art Collection) which was based on a story by the French writer Chateaubriand. This work reflects an earlier literary text, and did not garner the critical or commercial success that his earlier marbles had. This may be due to its stiff, awkward composition or the unfamiliar and rather trivial saga. In 1880, Rogers returned to the theme of Native Americans for his final work, The Last Arrow. In this work, he now used the more “modern” material of bronze and his subject is no longer that of childhood innocence or romantic love. The complex composition addresses a more sinister concept - that of a vanishing culture. Rogers’ Indian Fisher Girl and Indian Hunter Boy embody the sculptor’s wish to meet popular demand and to create a Native American mythology. Yet this combination of subject matter - the innocence of childhood and the idealization of native civilization represent the end of an era in this country’s artist production. Rogers’ pair - Indian Fisher Girl and Indian Hunter Boy embody the last moment of neoclassicism - created after the Civil War, in a traditional medium and carved in a country far removed from the United States. 

• Provenance

  Kansas City Public Library, 9th and Locust, (building and contents sold, 1960); US Trade School, Inc., 9th and Locust, Kansas City, (contents auctioned, Autumn, 1983); Private Collection, Kansas City, MO; The Tatti Family Collection

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• Condition
  "Indian Hunter Boy" with tops of four feathers, quiver of arrows and tips of bow restored with matched and carved marble, loss of one feather, minor retouch with acrylic paint, small chips to base; "Indian Fisher Girl" with restored digits on proper left hand, restored feather on proper right side in hair, restored with matched and carved marble, small chips to base, some minor cosmetic retouch with acrylic paint. Both recently cleaned with restorations by Steve Tatti Fine Art Conservation, New York