carving one of the most glorious specimens of his fellow-men. He chiselled a Washington!

Previously he had borrowed a head of Apollo, and purchased a block of marble. It grew into a likeness, and when the bust was exhibited, "he was hailed as an artist, a sculptor, a self-taught genius."

He now carved the group of Jephthah and his Daughter. It was exhibited in New York and Boston.

But our sympathy with the artist has led us to forget preliminaries, which every one wishes to know. He was born at New Haven in 1791, and still resides there. At first he began with chiselling, as it has been asserted some of the Greeks did; but he now models as other sculptors do, or ought to do. We hear he has orders for busts and monuments; but the time has not yet arrived in our New World when artists are to grow rich by their profession.

CHAPTER XXVI.

HORATIO GREENOUGH.

MR. GREENOUGH is so well known as an artist and a gentleman, that were it not essential to our plan to include a sketch of him and his works, we might esteem it sufficient to refer to a letter of his brother, Henry Greenough, published in Dunlap's "Arts of Design." As the book, however, may not be at hand, we shall take the liberty to make extracts.

Horatio Greenough "was born in Green Street, Boston, 1805. He was early distinguished for his proficiency in the classics, and for his excellent memory; having once obtained a prize, for having committed to memory in a given time more lines of English poetry than any of his competitors, by over a thousand.”

His brother writes: "I have often heard him attribute his first wish to attempt some thing like sculpture, to having constantly be

fore his eyes a marble statue of Phocion, a copy from the antique, which my father caused to be placed, with its pedestal, as an ornament to a mound in the garden. His first efforts were made in chalk, on account of its whiteness and softness. He soon tried alabaster, or rather rock plaster of Paris (unburnt), with equal success; and within a few weeks of his first attempt, he had been so assiduous as to transform his chamber to a regular museum, where rows of miniature busts, carved from engravings, were ranged on pine shelves. I recollect, in particular, a little chalk statue of William Penn, which he copied from an engraving in the Portfolio' of the bronze statue in Philadelphia.

"A gentleman who saw him copying in chalk the bust of John Adams, by Binon, was so pleased with his success, that he carried him to the Athenæum, and introduced him to Mr. Shaw, who was, I believe, the founder of the institution, and at that time the sole. director. My brother was then about twelve years old, and of course was much edified by Mr. Shaw's conversation, who assured him, as he held the chalk in his hand, that there was the germ of a great and noble art. While he showed him the casts there, he told him that, whenever he wished to copy any thing, he

should always find a bit of carpet to cut his chalk upon, and gave him a carte-blanche to the Fine Arts room, with its valuable engravings."

At this time my own recollections may be added. I was intimately acquainted with Mr. Shaw, and one day received a morning call from him, accompanied by an interesting, finelooking boy. Mr. Shaw handed me a miniature work, carved in chalk, which he told me was the execution of the youth with him. I hardly know which interested me most at the time, the generous and noble enthusiasm of Mr. Shaw for merit and genius, or the prepossessing appearance and talent of the young

artist.

"His progress," adds his brother, "was so rapid, that his father no longer opposed his devoting most of his time to these pursuits; insisting only on his graduating at Harvard University, Cambridge, on the ground that, if he continued in his determination, a college education would only the better fit him for an artist's life. He accordingly entered college, at the age of sixteen, in 1821.

"He obtained leave from the government of the College to quit before the usual time, and embarked for Rome. His diploma was afterwards forwarded to him."

Having letters to Thorwaldsen, he often visited his studio. At that time the great master appears to have been too deeply absorbed in his admiration of Phidias, to give much aid in the mechanical process of the art. The young American, however, became an object of interest to many, and he executed several busts of the size of life, when his studies were interrupted, at the termination of the first year, by what is called the malaria, and sickness obliged him to return to his native land.

The voyage home restored him to health. He passed a year in America, modelling busts of some of our distinguished men, of Washington and John Quincy Adams, and also of Chief Justice Marshal. He made arrangements for returning to Italy, to execute in marble the several models for which he had commissions, and left America in March, 1827.

He

From Gibraltar and Marseilles he proceeded to Carrara, where he finished two busts. then removed to Florence, which he fixed upon as his head-quarters. During the first year he became the pupil of Bartolini.

His first works are nearly all in America. The Chanting Cherubs, and the Medora, are now owned by individuals here. He spent a winter in Paris, and modelled busts of Lafay ette and of Fenimore Cooper.