Lot 106: WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART (1825-1874)

SLEEPING CHILDREN

measurements
33 1/4 by 18 by 16 in.

alternate measurements
(84.5 by 45.7 by 40.6 cm)

inscribed Wm.H. Rinehart and Sculpt Romae 1869 on the front of the base

white marble

Modeled in 1859; Carved in 1869.

PROVENANCE

Acquired by the present owner, circa 1970

LITERATURE

Lorado Taft, The History of American Sculpture, New York, 1924, pp. 178-79
William Sener Rusk, William Henry Rinehart, Sculptor, Baltimore, 1939, p. 16, illustration of another example
Marvin Chauncey Ross and Anna Wells Rutledge, A Catalogue of the Work of William Henry Rinehart, Baltimore, 1948, pp. 33-34, illustration of another example
Tom Armstrong, et al, 200 Years of American Sculpture, New York, 1976, p. 303
Lois Fink, "Children as Innocence from Cole to Cassatt," Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, no. 4, Winter 1977, pp. 71-75
William Kloss, Treasures from the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1985, pp. 52, 194, illustration of another example
Kathryn Greenthal, Paula M. Kozol, and Jan Seidler Ramirez, American Figurative Sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, pp. 150-52, illustration of another example

NOTE

In 1859, William Henry Rinehart wrote to friend and fellow artist Frank B. Mayer, "I have just finished a group of sleeping children for Sison [sic]. I sent Walters a photograph of them." Sleeping Children, one of Rinehart's most popular works, was reportedly modeled after a pair of children who were taking a midday nap at his studio in Rome. The original plaster is at the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and other examples can be found at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.