Statue of Albert Sidney Johnston (Texas State Cemetery)

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Coordinates: 30°15′55″N 97°43′36″W / 30.2652°N 97.7266°W / 30.2652; -97.7266
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Albert Sidney Johnston
Detail of the statue
Map
ArtistElisabet Ney
Year1903 (1903)
MediumMarble sculpture
SubjectAlbert Sidney Johnston
LocationTexas State Cemetery, Austin, Texas, United States
Coordinates30°15′55″N 97°43′36″W / 30.2652°N 97.7266°W / 30.2652; -97.7266

Albert Sidney Johnston is a

German American sculptor Elisabet Ney. The piece is a life-size recumbent male figure rendered in marble sculpture. It depicts the General at the time of his death in the Battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War. Completed in 1903,[1] the piece resides atop Johnston's tomb in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas, where it was installed in 1905.[2]

History

After his death in 1862,

Sam Houston had recently been approved for installation in the Texas State Capitol.[5]
: 106–107 

Ney developed the work between 1902 and 1903 in her Austin studio, Formosa (now the

St. Louis World's Fair, where it won a bronze medal.[1] It was then permanently installed at Johnston's tomb in Austin in 1905.[2]

Design and interpretation

Johnston's tomb, with Ney's statue and iron enclosure in the Texas State Cemetery

The statue depicts Johnston lying on a

wrought-iron enclosure with Gothic revival decorative elements (also designed by Ney).[1]

In designing Johnston, Ney aimed for a realistic effect, emphasizing naturalistic details in her composition. The sculpture includes the rough wooden litter and folded cloths on which the dying Johnston is meant to have been carried from the battle.[5]: 119–120  During the work's development, representatives of the Daughters of the Confederacy pressed Ney to include more symbolic or allegorical elements, but Ney refused, insisting upon a scene which could in fact have occurred on the Shiloh battlefield.[4] She did, however, intend the broken flagstaff to poetically suggest that the Confederacy's hopes of victory had been destroyed by Johnston's death.[7]: 205 

Ney designed the statue's enclosure with open ironwork bars and railings so that the tomb and statue would be visible from all sides without visitors having to enter the mausoleum. She included Gothic elements (such as

crocket capitals on the corner columns) to give the site a solemn and religious quality. Ney also incorporated Texas lone stars into the Gothic tracery to mark Johnston's grave as a commemoration of a notable Texan.[7]
: 188–189 

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780292760363
    . Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Albert Sidney Johnston". Texas State Cemetery. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Cartwright, Gary (May 2008). "Remains of the Day". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Martinello, Marian L.; Cutrer, Emily; Lowman, Al (1983). Elisabet Ney: Artist, Woman, Texan. University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio. p. 29. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Taylor, Bride Neill (1916). Elisabet Ney, Sculptor. Devin-Adair Publishing Company. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  6. ^ "Elisabet Ney Museum". City of Austin. April 9, 2015. Archived from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9781623494247
    .

External links
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