Hamilton

Art on Sunday #27

“Alexander Hamilton,” 1794, Marble, Giuseppe Ceracchi, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, August 1, 2015 (Pentax K-3 II)

Alexander Hamilton ( Wikipedia) is a marble bust portrait of Alexander Hamilton, done in the style of a Roman Senator, by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi. Ceracchi also created many replicas, in both marble and plaster. The bust was later used as a model for sculptures and paintings.

Ceracchi created a terracotta model of Hamilton, from life, about 1791–92. This was then sent to Rome, where he created the marble version. As written to Hamilton in July 1792, Ceracchi was “impatient to receive the clay that I had the satisfaction of forming from your witty and significant physiognomy”. He returned to deliver the bust to Hamilton in 1794, but did not receive payment until later. On March 3, 1796, Hamilton wrote in his cash book: “for this sum through delicacy paid upon cherachi’s draft for making my bust on his own importunity & as a favour to him $620″

The Hamilton family kept the bust until 1896 when it was bequeathed to the New York Public Library along with the portrait painting of George Washington, The Constable-Hamilton Portrait, by Gilbert Stuart. Both were sold together, as requested by the will, on November 30, 2005 to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for over $8 million.

A copy of the bust is now housed at Hamilton Grange, in New York City. The original is displayed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.