Horatio Stone
Composer George Henry Curtis (1821–1895)[5] set these to music as the oratorio Eleutheria, which premiered in New York City in April 1849.
In every structure, whether of great or small cost, let the spirit of design and the soul of sentiment manifest themselves, and then our cemeteries will be visited, not for the recreation of the drive only, but for the divine lessons they inculcate, and the sacred aspirations they inspire.
[11] In response to the association's advocacy, President James Buchanan created a National Arts Commission in 1859, a panel of experts to advise Congress on selecting artwork for federal buildings.
[12] Sculptor Henry Kirke Brown praised the efforts of his fellow commission member: "This Stone has been for the last eight years a sort of martyr to the cause of art in Washington, through poverty, neglect and scorn he has urged increasing the claim of American artists to the consideration and patronage of the government.
[13] Stone worked as a contract surgeon during the Civil War, 1862-1865, initially at the military hospital set up in the United States Patent Office, in Washington, D.C.
[14] Poet Walt Whitman was a volunteer nurse: In the Patent Office Hospital, Dr. Stone,– (Horatio Stone the sculptor—in his ward, some 150 men—he has been surgeon here several months—has had successive changes of soldiers in [his] charge—some bad wounds, of course—amputation, sometimes rapidly followed by death, &c.—others from fevers, &c. &c.)—he told me last evening that he had not in memory one single case of a man's meeting the approach of death, whether sudden or slow, with fear or trembling—but always of these young men meeting their death with steady composure, and often with curious readiness—[15]Congress awarded Stone three statue commissions for the U.S. Capitol: John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, and Edward Dickinson Baker.
His Hamilton is remarkably fine; and it is worthy of notice here that these works, costing so little in comparison with others purchased by the government, should be so much more valuable for their artistic merit.
)[18] Baker served as a colonel in the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War and, after losing re-election to Congress, opened a law office in San Francisco in 1852.
At the urging of a group of Oregon Republicans, Baker moved to Portland in February 1860, and the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate in October.
Stone conceived the statue as the crowning figure for a triumphal arch in Baker's memory, to be erected in Lone Mountain Cemetery, opposite San Francisco.
Yet the dignity and grandeur of his mien are here, as he stands wrapped in his cloak, his arms folded, his head thrown back, his noble face lifted as if he saw the future—his future—and awaited it undaunted and with a joyful heart.
[22] Stone returned to the United States in 1871, and his plaster models were cast in bronze by the Robert Wood Foundry in Philadelphia.
[22] He turned to art patron John Chipman Hoadley, who paid Stone's expenses, and the pair of smaller vases were installed (on loan) in the newly-built House of Representatives Chamber.
"[23] Following Hoadley's 1886 death, members of the Boston Art Club purchased the three federal vases through subscription, and presented them to that institution in 1887.
In the frieze are represented in low relief the capitals and other characteristic specimens of the architecture of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, over which are suspended the telegraph wires.
[33] The ship's passengers were warned of cholera outbreaks in Italy, but he planned to travel to Rome, and "ridiculed the idea of its being any more sickly there than in any other city.
— Dr. Stone, as he was popularly called, the well-known sculptor, of Washington City, died at Carrara, Italy, early in September [sic].
During Dr. Stone's residence in Washington, and between the years 1850 and 1860, he produced several life-size portrait-busts of Chief-Justice Taney and Senator Thomas H. Benton.
The last and most important work which engaged his attention was a model for the Farragut statue ordered by Congress, but he was an unsuccessful applicant for the commission.
Dr. Stone was very enthusiastic in his nature, and had he given his attention earlier to the study of his art under a competent master, he might have achieved lasting fame.
