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William Henry Rhinehart
In the early part of the 19th century in Frederick County,
Maryland, a farm boy named William Henry Rhinehart proved
to be inept as a farmer, and so his father sent him off
to school in hopes he might become a scholar. Unfortunately,
the lad failed at that as well. His frustrated father
brought him back home and started a marble quarry on
the farm to give the youth something constructive to
do with his life. The youth spent his time cutting and
carving stone, including tombstones and domestic items
like mantelpieces and doorknobs, such as the one shown
here, which was found on this farm by children who were
playing there some years ago.
The youth found he had a passion for his work with stone,
and eventually he asked his father for permission to
travel to Baltimore, where he hoped to learn from some
of the leading area stone cutters. There, at the middle
of the century, he worked in the stone-yard of Baughman
and Bevan on the site of what is now The Peabody Institute,
Baltimore. He met a wealthy merchant named William Thompson
Walters, who later became famous as civic-minded collector
of art, the founder of Walters Art Museum and a trustee
of other pivotal cultural institutions in the US and
abroad.
Walters, who was then only beginning his long
and storied career as a patron of the arts and
of artists, provided
the funds for Rhinehart to study in Florence, Italy.
Rhinehart went on to become one of the first great American
sculptors.
One critic said, “Beauty first entered American
sculpture with Rhinehart.” |
