Thomas Crawford (sculptor)

Thomas Crawford ( born March 22, 1814 New York, † October 10, 1857 in London) was an American sculptor.

Crawford came from an Irish Einwanderfamilie. He learned the art of xylograph and of the woodcut but later switched to sculpture. With twenty years, Crawford arrived in 1834 to Rome, where he became a pupil of the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Soon, Crawford was able to gather disciples around themselves; mentioned here is the sculptor Leonard nation and his son, the painter Douglas people.

For the city of Richmond in Virginia Crawford created an equestrian statue of Washington with medallions of the most famous leader of the American War of Independence, and thus he succeeded an outstanding artistic breakthrough. This success surpassed Crawford only by its monumental pediment at the Capitol in Washington, DC, where he represented the major eras of American history in allegorical images.

Seriously ill Crawford traveled to a spa to Britain. In London, the sculptor Thomas Crawford died at the age of 43 years on 10 October 1857.

Works (selection)

  • Orpheus visits the Eurydice in Hades
  • The Babes in the Wood
  • Herodias with the head of John the Baptist
  • Flora
  • The dancers and the Huntsman
  • A bronze statue of Beethoven for the Athenaeum in Boston
Douglas Volk George Washington United States Capitol Integrated Authority File
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