10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



and laborious days, under the wise counsel and friendly aid of the great 

 Thorwaldsen, to the simplest but sublimest of the arts. His earliest 

 productions gave ample promise of future distinction. In 1839 Mr. 

 Charles Sumner, then visiting Rome, saw the model of the Orpheus, 

 and, admiring its chaste and classic beauty, undertook, with friendly 

 zeal, to raise a subscription in Boston, that the work might be executed 

 in marble. He was successful, and the Orpheus of Crawford is now one 

 of the conspicuous ornaments of the gallery of the Boston Athenteum, 

 and its rare merit established the fame of the young sculptor. In 

 1844 he returned to the United States, and was married to Miss Louisa 

 Ward of New York. I need not dwell on the happiness which this 

 marriage secured to him. 



" The reputation of the ai'tist increased, with the rapidly increasing 

 number of his works. This is not the occasion to enumerate them, or 

 to enter upon an elaborate criticism of their various and extraordinary 

 merits. I have spoken of the first, and I have alluded to the last, the 

 colossal monument of Washington, ordered by the patriotic State of 

 Virginia, which remained, in some of its details, uncompleted at the 

 time of his death. That monument will make the Capitol of Rich- 

 mond a shrine to which the lovers of art will for ever make their 

 pilgrimages, to gaze upon the sculptured form of the greatest of 

 men, embodied by the genius of one of the greatest of modern 

 sculptors. 



" Mr. Crawford was a person of generous and manly character. 

 He was bold without rudeness, frank and independent without forget- 

 ting the rights of others. In conversation he was animated, intelligent, 

 and instructive. In manners he was unaffected, simple, and hearty. 

 His genius was not only vigorous, but varied and afiluent. His imagi- 

 nation was brilliant and fiery, but chaste and disciplined ; and his hand 

 was untiring in executing what his mind conceived. He loved to 

 enthusiasm the beauty of Hellenic art, and was an unerring but kindly 

 critic of the productions of the moderns, and of his living contempo- 

 raries. He was alike familiar with the boundless treasures of the 

 Vatican and of the Capitol, and with the vast variety of works in the 

 studios of the artists of all nations at Rome. From what I saw and 

 heard of him there, I am sure it will be the verdict of his brethren, 

 that he has hardly left his peer in the Eternal City. 



" In 1856 Mr. Crawford came on a visit to the United States ; and 

 his friends were struck by the unbroken vigor of his health, and the 



