biografía de Shobal Vail CLEVENGER (1812-1843)

Lugar de nacimiento: near Middletown (Ohio)

Lugar de defunción: at sea

Direcciones: Cincinnati, OH, early 1830s; travel on east coast, 1836-40; Italy, 1840-43

Profesión: Sculptor

Estudios: David Guion, Cincinnati, early 1830's (basics of stone-cutting); Florence, Italy

Exposiciones: Boston Athenaeum, 1839 (busts of Harrison Grey Otis, Lemuel Shaw, Washington Allston, and others); PAFA, 1906

Obra: Md. Hist. Soc; NYHS; Boston Athenaeum

Comentarios: After achieving recognition as a portrait sculptor in Cincinnati, and with the encouragement of patron Nicholas Longworth, Clevenger went east in 1836 and met with great success, producing busts of the country's leading citizens in Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, and NYC; among his subjects were William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Washington Allston (Boston Athenaeum). These portraits, especially one of the ailing Allston, were strong and unyielding in their realism. In 1840, again under the patronage of Longworth, Clevenger went to Italy for further study, joining Hiram Powers in Florence. He was beginning to produce ideal works and was working on a full-length depiction of an American Indian Chief (unfinished, now lost; design is reproduced in Craven, fig. 6.3) when he became ill with consumption. He died at sea as he was returning to America with his family.

Fuentes: G&W; DAB; Cist, Cincinnati in 1841; Swan, BA; CAB; repro. American Collector, XV (May 1946), 13. More recently, see Baigell, Dictionary; Craven, Sculpture in America, 180-187 (w/ repros.)