Adams, Adeline: The spirit of American sculpture (New York: Nat. Sculpture Soc., 1923)

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THE SPIRIT OF
wood, or his soldierly self-portrait,
carved from a pine log; or the early
efforts, in portraiture, of Dixey, in
New Jersey, of Augur in Connecti-
cut; of John Frazee, that young stone-
cutter to whom we owe the first marble
portrait bust chiseled in the United
States, as late as the year 1824. We
remember also the Browere life-masks,
created by a secret process, and useful
still as historic data.
Interesting and emphatic as are the
personalities of all these early workers,
that of William Rush is by far the
most significant. In literal truth, Pa-
tience Wright was merely our first
sculptress, whose work must bear the
implications of frailty lent by that
name. But William Rush was our
first sculptor. In his youth he was a
soldier of the Revolution, and in later
life he was long a member of the Coun-
cil of Philadelphia; his career as artist
and as citizen won respect for the early
I
MRS. PATIENCE WRIGHT