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  • Eaton, Charles James Madison, b. 1808 d. 1893

    Arts administrator
    Md. (Show Bio)

    Charles James Madison Eaton correspondence with Hiram Powers, and a letter received from Thomas Sully, 1845-1867

    21 items (on partial microfilm reel).
    Reel(s): 3416

    Nineteen letters from Hiram Powers in Florence to Eaton, 1845-1867, concerning: the future of the Fine Arts in America; sculpture for the Capitol building; government patronage and politics; his commissions for portrait busts and ideal figures; his biographer, C.E. Lester, whom Powers rejects as "a scroundrel capable of any amount of falsehood"; the London exhibition and the American tour of the sculpture the GREEK SLAVE; European reaction to the outcome of the American Civil War; the art community in Florence; Powers' 1846 trip to Turin and Rome; and his health, family, and personal ambitions. In closing his letters, Powers often sends regards from Miner Kellogg.

    Also included is a letter from Eaton to Powers, December 5, 1864, regarding a shipment of modelling clay from Baltimore to Florence, and a letter from Thomas Sully in Philadelphia to Eaton, September 27, 1847. Eaton was disappointed to learn that a painting he had inspected was not a Sully. "I am mortified at your disappointment," Sully wrote, "...had the picture been an original by me, I should have charged double the price."

    Location of Originals: Originals in Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland.

    Lent for microfilming 1985 by the Maryland Historical Society.

    How to Use this Collection

    • Patrons must use microfilm copy.
    • Microfilm reel 3416 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
      microfilm reel also available in the Maryland Historical Society.
    • For more information on using resources at the Archives of American Art, please visit our Ask Us page


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