Herbert Barbee

Herbert Barbee (October 8, 1848 – March 22, 1936 ) was an American sculptor from Luray, Virginia. He was the son of William Randolph Barbee, also a renowned sculptor, with whom he studied in Florence, Italy for some time. He lived for much of his life in his home county, where he had something of a reputation as an eccentric, and where he was not respected by many of the locals due to his propensity for carving nude figures. At one time he also kept a studio in New York, During his career he also worked in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and St. Louis. Eventually he opened a studio in Hamburg, Virginia, not far from his birthplace. thumb Barbee created the monument to Confederate soldiers of Rappahannock County that today stands on the courthouse lawn in Washington, VirginiaIn addition to his own work, Barbee completed several pieces which had been left unfinished by his father at the time of his death, and also carved marble pieces after a number of his father's clay models; one of these, The Star of the West, received a gold medal at the Southern Exposition of 1883. He is buried at the Stover Cemetery in Luray.

Work Barbee's most notable work is a memorial to the Confederacy in Luray, erected in 1898; called the "Confederate Heroes Monument", or sometimes "Barbee's Monument", its erection is said to have been inspired by a visit to the battlefield at Gettysburg, although the more immediate reason for its creation was as the focal point of a proposed park, called Henkel Woods Park, whose construction was never completed. Its design is said to have been based on the memory of a sentry Barbee saw standing on the mountain above Thornton Gap one winter's day during the Civil War.

Barbee also crafted monuments to the Confederacy in Warrenton and Washington, Virginia. The latter was commissioned in 1900, although the date at which it was actually constructed is unknown; and includes as part of its design a bas relief portrait of John Singleton Mosby.