| Adams Memorial | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
 The Adams Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White
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| Location: | Rock Creek Cemetery Webster St. and Rock Creek Church Rd., NW. Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates: | 38°56′50.5″N 77°0′37″W / 38.947361°N 77.01028°W |
| Built/Founded: | 1891 |
| Architect: | Augustus Saint-Gaudens Stanford White |
| Added to NRHP: | March 16, 1972 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 72001420 |
The Adams Memorial is a grave marker located in Section E of Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., that features a cast bronze allegorical sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The shrouded figure is seated against a granite block, which forms one side of a hexagonal plot, designed by architect Stanford White.
Erected in 1891, the monument was commissioned by author/historian Henry Adams (a member of the Adams political family) as a memorial to his wife, Clover Hooper Adams. Adams advised Saint-Gaudens to contemplate iconic images from Buddhist devotional art. One such subject, Kwannon (also known as Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of compassion), is frequently depicted as a seated figure draped in cloth. In particular, a painting of Kannon by Kanō Motonobu, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and shown to Saint-Gaudens by John LaFarge, is said to have played a major role in influencing the conception and design of this sculpture[1]. Saint-Gaudens may also have been influenced by Parisian funerary art from his stay in France.[2]
Saint-Gaudens's name for the bronze figure is The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding, but the public commonly called it Grief—an appellation that Henry Adams apparently disliked. In a letter addressed to Homer Saint-Gaudens, on January 24, 1908, Adams instructed him:
"Do not allow the world to tag my figure with a name! Every magazine writer wants to label it as some American patent medicine for popular consumption—Grief, Despair, Pear's Soap, or Macy's Mens' Suits Made to Measure. Your father meant it to ask a question, not to give an answer; and the man who answers will be damned to eternity like the men who answered the Sphinx."
At the time of Saint-Gaudens's death, the statue was well-known as an important work of American sculpture. Its popularity inspired at least one prominent copy, the Black Aggie, which was sold to General Felix Agnus for his gravesite.[3]
An informative and engaging study of the memorial and the relationship between Clover and Henry Adams is Clover: The Tragic Love Story of Clover and Henry Adams and Their Brilliant Life in America's Gilded Age by historian Otto Friedrich.
On March 16, 1972, the Adams Memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Notes
- ^ "Augustus Saint-Gaudens." The Third Mind exhibition website. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Accessed 21 February 2009.
- ^ Field, Cynthia R. (1995). "The Adams Memorial". Smithsonian Preservation Quarterly. The Smithsonian Institution Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation. http://www.si.edu/oahp/spq/Summer-Fall%201995.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-31. "Adams, who said his own name for it was "The Peace of God," stated that "The whole meaning and feeling of the figure is in its universality and anonymity.'"
- ^ Mills, Cynthia J. (Summer, 2000). "Casting Shadows: The Adams Memorial and Its Doubles". American Art (Smithsonian American Art Museum) 14 (2): 2–25. doi:.
External links
Adams Memorial photos at Historic American Buildings Survey
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adams Memorial |
- Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery - Copy of the Adams Memorial
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