Samuel Murray (sculptor)

Murray, the 11th of 12 children of an Irish stonemason, William, and his wife, Margaret (née Hannigan), the daughter of a linen merchant, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and educated in the city's public and private schools.

The exact nature of their relationship is the subject of speculation, but Murray remained a lifelong friend to Eakins, and helped care for the disabled painter in his old age.

At age 21 (reportedly, on Eakins's recommendation), Murray was hired by the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art) as an instructor in clay modeling and anatomy—a position he held for over 50 years.

)[8] His first major commission came in September 1896, for ten colossal terracotta statues of Biblical prophets to adorn the facade of Philadelphia's Witherspoon Building.

[10] Over the course of half a century, he modeled about a dozen large sculptures in bronze, the ten Witherspoon prophets, and nearly 200 portrait busts, miniatures and statuettes.

Some of the commissions – Commodore Joseph Barry (1906–08), Father William Corby (1909–10), Bishop John W. Shanahan Memorial (1916–18) – may have come through his ties to Philadelphia's Irish-Catholic community.

An immense granite pavilion, Murray modeled the bas-reliefs of battle scenes over its four arches, and the 21-foot-tall (originally gold-patinaed) goddess that crowns its dome.