John Burroughs
Artist: Cartaino di Sciarrino Pietro (American, 1886-1918)
Date: 1918
Dimensions:
Sculpture: 47 × 54 1/4 × 32 in. (119.4 × 137.8 × 81.3 cm)
121.9 × 281.9 × 188 cm (48 × 111 × 74 in.)
Medium: bronze
Place of Origin: United States
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of William E. Bock
Object number: 1918.2
Label Text:Famous naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921) visited the Toledo area in the 1910s to design a garden for admirer and patron William E. Bock of Rossford. Bock also commissioned for the garden this sculpted portrait by Cartaino di Sciarrino Pietro, a mostly self-taught artist born in Palermo, Sicily. After the sculpture was finished, Bock decided it should be enjoyed by the public and so presented it to the Toledo Museum of Art for the benefit of the city’s school children. On April 12, 1918—declared “Burrough’s Day” by the mayor—20,000 children gathered at the Museum to honor Burroughs as he attended the dedication of the sculpture.
His pose, peering into the distance through a cluster of trees, is a fitting one for the nature lover. Burroughs believed firmly that the wonders of the natural world open up through careful and quiet observation—what he called “sharp looking.”
His pose, peering into the distance through a cluster of trees, is a fitting one for the nature lover. Burroughs believed firmly that the wonders of the natural world open up through careful and quiet observation—what he called “sharp looking.”
On view
In Collection(s)