Frederick W. MacMonnies (American, 1863–1937)
Cast by E. Gruet Jeune Foundry (French, 1891–1904)
Nathan Hale
INV-1130
Frederick W. MacMonnies (American, 1863–1937)
Cast by E. Gruet Jeune Foundry (French, 1891–1904)Modeled 1890, cast after 1890
Nathan Hale
Frederick W. MacMonnies (American, 1863–1937) Cast by E. Gruet Jeune Foundry (French, 1891–1904) →Realismsculptureamerican arts
Date
Modeled 1890, cast after 1890
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
H.: 72.4 cm (28 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Robert Allerton
Sculptor Frederick MacMonnies portrayed Nathan Hale, an American soldier and spy captured during the Revolutionary War, in the moments before he was killed by the British in 1776. MacMonnies rendered the bronze figure with naturalistic details: his waved locks of hair, parted overcoat and rumpled 18th-century dress, and ropes tied around his upper arms and ankles. Hale’s deliberate gaze and the open gesture of his hands convey a strong emotive quality attuned to the finality of the imminent punishment. This is a reduced version of the large-scale sculpture Nathan Hale installed in City Hall Park in New York, one of MacMonnies’s first public commissions.
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