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Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii

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Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii

1863
marble
54 in. x 26 1/2 in. x 37 in. (137.16 cm x 67.31 cm x 93.98 cm)
Henry Melville Fuller Fund, 1989.3

Randolph Rogers
American
1825–1892

ON VIEW

Equally adept at modeling the figures of classical heroines and deceased statesmen, Randolph Rogers earned a reputation as one of Victorian America's most talented sculptors. Born in 1825 in Waterloo, New York, Rogers was still a small child when he moved with his family to Ann Arbor, Michigan. After spending some time as an apprentice baker, Rogers began to make woodcut illustrations for a local newspaper. He eventually decided on engraving as a career, and to further his prospects, he set out for New York City about 1847. He found few opportunities, however, and was forced to take a job in a store. There he spent his free time carving likenesses in plaster. These caught the attention of his employers, who, impressed by Rogers's abilities, offered to pay for sculpture training overseas.

Arriving in Florence, Italy, in the fall of 1848, Rogers studied for a time with neoclassical sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850). Although Bartolini died not long afterward, Rogers had acquired enough skill to open his own studio in Rome in 1851. With the exception of periodic visits to the United States, Rogers remained in Italy for the rest of his life. His first major work, Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii, was perhaps his most resounding success, and like Hiram Powers's (1805-1873) Greek Slave, it attained the status of popular icon during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Rogers also gained fame for his many public monuments, including an extensive series of Civil War memorials and a statue for the dome of the Connecticut State House. During the early 1880s Rogers's health began to fail, and he produced little new work. The artist had grown wealthy by this time, however, and he lived out the last decade of his life in relative comfort. Rogers died in Rome early in 1892.

Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii portrays one of the principal characters in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's immensely popular novel The Last Days of Pompeii, first published in 1834. In Bulwer-Lytton's book, Nydia has fallen in love with Glaucus but must conceal her feelings, for Glaucus loves Ione, the story's heroine. Caught in Pompeii during the climactic eruption of Vesuvius, Glaucus and Ione turn to blind Nydia, who alone can lead them through the ash-darkened streets. As Nydia attempts to guide them to safety, she becomes separated from the two lovers. Remembering their arrangements to head for the seaside and escape, she presses onward through the doomed city. Her flight is the subject of Rogers's composition, which he modeled in 1854 just before one of his visits to America.

Rogers's Nydia was highly esteemed as an effective combination of literary associations, sentiment, and innovative sculptural composition. Making her way through the chaos of Pompeii, Nydia grasps a staff in her right hand as she traverses the rubble-strewn streets, here indicated by the fallen capital at her feet. Cupping an ear with her left hand, she listens for the sounds of volcanic explosions and the consequent rain of debris. Although she is blind, the expression on her face conveys the fear and concern she feels for herself and her lost companions; her agitation is further evident in the restless sweep of drapery enfolding her dynamically turned figure.

Although it was not unusual for painters and sculptors to trade on the popularity of successful authors, Rogers took Bulwer-Lytton's character and made it his own. Indeed, his version of Nydia transcended its source, becoming an embodiment of Victorian pathos in its invocation of a blind flower girl struggling through adversity both emotional and physical. Rogers was proud of his achievement, and in writing to one potential patron, he asserted: "The subject is so beautiful, and the character of the blind flower girl so pure, that all who have hearts must feel interested in her."(1) The critical success and numerous orders for replicas of Nydia proved Rogers correct, and the statue has remained his signature work.

The Currier's Nydia is believed to have been made for the well-known New York art collector A. T. Stewart, who displayed the statue in his mansion. Later in the nineteenth century, Nydia was given by Stewart's wife to the Cathedral School of St. Mary, where it remained until the early 1970s. Afterward, it passed through the hands of several dealers and auction houses until its purchase by the Currier Museum of Art in 1989. In contrast with much nineteenth-century marble sculpture, the Currier's Nydia is in a fine state of preservation and is today one of the centerpieces of the Museum's American collections.

VSD

NOTE

1. Randolph Rogers to H. F. Frieze, quoted in Millard F. Rogers Jr., Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome (N.p.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), p. 39.

REFERENCES

Wayne Craven. Sculpture in America. Newark: University of Delaware Press; New York: Cornwall Books, 1984.

Thayer Tolles, ed. American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Volume I. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999.

Millard F. Rogers Jr. Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome. N.p.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971.


Exhibition
1993 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Celebrate America! Three Centuries of American Art from the Currier." June 19 - Aug. 29.

Provenance
A.T. Stewart Collection
Gift to Cathedral School of St. Mary, Garden City, NY, from Mrs. Alexander T. Stewart after 1887
Richard Bole (antique dealer), 1971
Christies, lot 124, December 8, 1978
Peter Hill Inc., East Lempster, NH
Purchased by Currier Gallery of Art, 1989

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