Howard Roberts

Robert Fulton (1878-83) by Howard Roberts, Statuary Hall Collection, U.S. Capitol Howard Roberts (April 8, 1843 – April 19, 1900) was an American sculptor, who spent most of his life and career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, he was "considered the most accomplished American sculptor," but his output was small, and his reputation was soon surpassed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and others.

Examples of his work are in the collections of the U.S. Capitol, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the New York Historical Society.

Biography Born into a well-to-do Old Philadelphia family, Roberts studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under sculptor Joseph A. Bailly. He was an exact contemporary of fellow Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins, and both entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1866, and studied under sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont. Eakins did not consider Roberts a friend, calling him "a rich disagreeable young man from Philadelphia, one who has without any apparent reason seen fit to be my enemy." Still, Roberts may have posed for Eakins, and Roberts brokered a reconciliation between Eakins and Mary Cassatt. Roberts continued his studies under sculptor Charles Gumery, before returning to Philadelphia in 1869.

Architect Frank Furness, whose firm won the 1871 design competition for PAFA's new building, sought advice from the two wonder boys from Paris, Roberts and Eakins, when designing its painting and sculpture studios.

Early works Roberts's first major work was a two-thirds-life-size marble group, Hester Prynne and Baby Pearl at the Pillory (1869–72), inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter. It was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1872. Roberts returned to Paris in 1873, taking with him the plaster of Hypathia (heroine of Charles Kingsley's novel of the same name) to be cut in marble.

La Première Pose La Première Pose by Howard Roberts (1876), Philadelphia Museum of Art. Steel engraving by Richard Dudensing (1876) Roberts began a new sculpture in Paris, La Première Pose (1873–76), likely as a replacement for Hypathia as his display piece for the upcoming 1876 Centennial Exhibition. Roberts chose Alfred Stauch, a German stonecutter who he knew from Philadelphia, to cut it in marble. In 1875, Roberts left the plaster of La Première Pose with Stauch in Germany, and brought the plaster of Hypathia back to Philadelphia. Roberts was awarded a gold medal for La Première Pose, one of only three received by American sculptors.

Robert Fulton Roberts helped to turn American tastes away from Italianate Neo-Classicism to French Beaux-Arts realism. Rather than creating a traditional heroic work, he modeled a young Robert Fulton dressed in casual clothes, deep in thought, contemplating the possibilities of the steamboat model he holds in his lap: —A statue of Robert Fulton has been finished in the clay by Howard Roberts. Fulton is dressed as a working man, and is intent on a small model held in the right hand, the forearm being bare. About his chair are tools. The model has been accepted by the Legislature. This exactly paralleled what Thomas Eakins was doing in his paintings of William Rush and His Model — depicting the artistic/intellectual process of the sculptor/inventor that culminated in his success, rather than just celebrating the great man.

Art historian David Sellin conjectured that Roberts likely sent Alfred Stauch to Italy to pick out the Carrara marble for Robert Fulton. and was the father of entomologist Howard Radclyffe Roberts Jr. Helen Pauline Roberts (1880–1889), died young.

Roberts closed his Philadelphia studio in 1894, and returned to Paris with his wife and son. He unexpectedly died there at age 57 in 1900. A memorial exhibition of his work was held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1905. Howard Roberts (1845-1900) exhibited a figure called La Première Pose at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, which aroused great interest, as it was the first notable example of the modern French style in American sculpture. A few ideal busts and statues or statuettes, Hester Prynne, Hypathia, Lot's Wife, Eleanor, make up nearly the sum of Roberts' works, but he has the honor of having introduced the French style.

Selected works

Eleanore (1870), bust, marble, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hester Prynne and Baby Pearl at the Pillory (1869–72), statuette, marble, Library Company of Philadelphia Lucile (1871), head and torso, location unknown La Première Pose (1873–76), statue, marble, Philadelphia Museum of Art Lot's Wife (1876–77), statue, marble, private collection Napoleon's First Battle (1878–79), bas-relief?, location unknown. Depicts Napoleon as a boy surveying his toy soldiers. Robert Fulton (1878–83), statue, marble, National Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. Maquette for Robert Fulton, plaster, New York Historical Society