William Ordway Partridge
William Ordway Partridge entered the world on the 11th of April 1861, in Paris. His father served as the Paris representative for the New York City department store A.T. Stewart. His mother was a cousin of the painter George Catlin. The family returned to New York City in 1868 and enrolled him in Cheshire Academy in Connecticut. He later attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn before entering Columbia University in autumn 1881. Poor health forced his withdrawal from that institution shortly after enrollment. He traveled to Europe in 1882 to pursue artistic training instead. In Florence he studied in the studio of Fortunato Galli. There he became friends with the young Bernard Berenson. Although he never formally enrolled at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, he audited classes there in autumn 1883. He also studied briefly in the Paris studio of sculptor Antonin Mercié. He returned to New York City in Spring 1884 and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He appeared in a New York City production of David Copperfield. He moved to Boston where he supported himself by giving dramatic readings of Shakespeare and the Romantic poets. He continued to sculpt while receiving encouragement from his cousin John Rogers.
Partridge won a national competition in 1890 to create a statue of William Shakespeare for Chicago. He returned to Paris to set up a studio for this project. His full-size plaster model of Shakespeare was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition alongside nine other works. The bronze Shakespeare was installed in Lincoln Park the following spring. It was dedicated on the 23rd of April 1894, which marked the Bard's 330th birthday. Partridge wrote a sonnet specifically for its dedication. The Equestrian Statue of General Ulysses S. Grant followed as his most colossal work between 1895 and 1896. Commissioned by the Union League Club of Brooklyn it stood in the center of Bedford Avenue. The bronze horse and rider reached approximately twelve feet in height upon a granite pedestal about twenty feet tall. This monument was dedicated on the 27th of April 1896. A bequest from Englishman James Smithson funded the creation of the Smithsonian Institution. Partridge received a commission in 1896 to create a bronze memorial tablet commemorating that bequest for Smithson's gravesite in Genoa, Italy. He based his relief portrait of Smithson on an 1817 relief portrait taken from life by Pierre-Joseph Tiolier.
Partridge created two larger-than-life bronze statues of Alexander Hamilton fifteen years apart. The first statue was commissioned by the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn and installed in front of their headquarters in Brooklyn Heights. It was dedicated on the 4th of October 1893. For months before and after that dedication his full-size plaster model of Hamilton was on exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The second Hamilton statue was commissioned by the Alumni Association of Columbia College. It was installed on campus in front of Hamilton Hall and dedicated on the 27th of May 1908. Both Hamilton statues stand in northern Manhattan less than one mile apart. His most famous religious work is the larger-than-life Pietà he created for St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. The dead Christ lies collapsed before a seated Mary who cradles his face with her hand. Carved from white Carrara marble the Pietà sits in the Ambulatory behind the High Altar. Critic Robert Burns Wilson wrote a sensitive appreciation of this specific work. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities commissioned Partridge to create a larger-than-life bronze statue of Pocahontas. This piece was intended for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia. The exposition commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
Partridge lectured at the National Social Science Association and the Concord School of Philosophy. He also spoke at the Brooklyn Institute between 1897 and 1903. During that period he lectured at what is now George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He went on to lecture at Stanford University in California. He wrote a manual on sculpting titled Technique of Sculpture which appeared in 1895. His studio was located at 15 West 38th Street in Manhattan. Lee Lawrie served among his studio assistants. Partridge published two volumes of poetry including The Song-Life of a Sculptor in 1894 and Sonnets and Lyrics in 1902. He released three verse novels: The Angel of Clay in 1900, Nathan Hale: The Ideal Patriot in 1902, and The Czar's Gift in 1906. Non-fiction works included Art for America in 1894 and The Works in Sculpture of William Ordway Partridge in 1914. Articles and lectures covered topics like Goethe as a Playwright and Greek versus Modern Sculpture.
Partridge studied under European academies before establishing his own practice in Milton, Massachusetts. He returned to Milton in 1889 after traveling with his wife Augusta Merriam through Europe. They had married in 1887 when she was fifteen years older than him. While in Rome he studied in the studio of Polish sculptor Pio Welonski. In Paris he formed a close friendship with neo-Gothic architect Ralph Adams Cram while studying briefly in the studio of painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. His work often featured bronze figures seated on granite exedra or marble bas-reliefs depicting historical scenes. A bronze figure seated on a granite exedra with seven bronze bas-relief panels appeared in the Samuel H. Kauffman Memorial completed in 1921. These panels depicted Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man. His plaster model from 1901 resides at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan. A plaster maquette from 1914 is held by the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester. The sculpture Memory features a bas relief bust of James G. Avrell whose memory founded that gallery. Partridge died in Manhattan on the 22nd of May 1930.
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Common questions
When and where was William Ordway Partridge born?
William Ordway Partridge entered the world on the 11th of April 1861, in Paris. His father served as the Paris representative for the New York City department store A.T. Stewart.
What are the major sculptures created by William Ordway Partridge?
William Ordway Partridge won a national competition in 1890 to create a statue of William Shakespeare for Chicago. He also sculpted the Equestrian Statue of General Ulysses S. Grant between 1895 and 1896 and two larger-than-life bronze statues of Alexander Hamilton fifteen years apart.
Where is the Pietà sculpture by William Ordway Partridge located?
The Pietà carved from white Carrara marble sits in the Ambulatory behind the High Altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. Critic Robert Burns Wilson wrote a sensitive appreciation of this specific work.
Which books did William Ordway Partridge write about his art and life?
William Ordway Partridge published a manual on sculpting titled Technique of Sculpture which appeared in 1895. He released three verse novels including The Angel of Clay in 1900 and Non-fiction works such as Art for America in 1894.
When did William Ordway Partridge die and where was he buried?
William Ordway Partridge died in Manhattan on the 22nd of May 1930. His studio was located at 15 West 38th Street in Manhattan before his death.