Hiawatha (sculpture)

Last updated
Hiawatha
Hiawatha MET DT265619.jpg
Year1872-1874
Mediummarble
Dimensions152.4 cm× 87.6 cm× 94.6 cm(60.0 in× 34.5 in× 37.2 in)
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Hiawatha is a 19th-century sculpture executed in marble by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The work, which depicts the Iroquois leader Hiawatha, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [1]

Description

Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpted his interpretation of the famed Iroquois leader between 1872 and 1874. He was inspired to create the work by The Song of Hiawatha , an 1855 epic poem by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow's poem was well received by American audiences, and the epic work resulted in a rekindling of interest in Hiawatha and the waxing days of the Iroquois Confederacy. The poem is itself reflected on Saint-Gauden's sculpture, as the line “pondering, musing in the forest /On the welfare of his people/On the smooth Bark of a birch tree/Painted many shapes and figures” is inscribed on the base of the work, and said excerpt is directly reflected in the sculpture's pose. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Hiawatha". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-09-24.