Lot 31: *THOMAS CRAWFORD (1813-1857) BRIDE OF ABYDOS

inscribed and dated T. Crawford. Fecit Rome 1842 white marble Height: 28 1/4 in.71.8 cm. including socle Inspired by Byron's poetry, Thomas Crawford executed The Bride of Abydos in Rome, commissioned by John Parker of Boston. Before the work even left the studio it elicited the praise of Fanny Longfellow, the wife of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Thorwaldson, the eminent Danish Neo-classical sculptor. "The Bride of Abydos...and many other works were all examined by the noble old man whose praises and bellissimas made the young artist's heart leap as he wrote home (to his sister Jenny) "What a happy incident was the coming of Thorwaldson upon my Birthday"' (Gale, p. 21). Provenance: Galerie Etienne Levy, Paris Literature: R. L. Gale, Thomas Crawford: American Sculptor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1964, pp. 21, 45 William H. Gerdts, American Neo-Classic Sculpture The Marble Resurrection, New York, 1973, pp. 118, 119, no. 129, illustration of another version in the collection of Sewell Biggs, Middletown, Delaware.