{"id":9708,"date":"2015-12-11T00:20:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T05:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=9708"},"modified":"2023-04-28T10:43:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:43:09","slug":"william-rush-and-whats-left-of-the-nymph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/12\/william-rush-and-whats-left-of-the-nymph\/","title":{"rendered":"William Rush and What’s Left of the Nymph"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Head<\/a>
Head of Leda From “Leda and the Swan,” [William Rush, sculptor, 1809]. Photographed February 20, 1918. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>This wooden head is all that remains of William Rush’s carved sculpture from 1809. That standing, life-sized \u201cNymph,\u201d Philadelphia’s first free-standing piece of public art, held aloft a marsh bird, a bittern, which spouted a column of Schuylkill water. Originally, the sculpture and its fountain stood in front of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe\u2019s pump house at Center Square. For some time now, that’s been the site of the courtyard at Philadelphia City Hall.<\/p>\n

Rush started carving figureheads for ships in the 1780s and soon his repertoire included luminaries and legends: Franklin<\/a>, Washington, Adams, Voltaire, Hercules, allegories of Peace<\/a>, Liberty, and the \u201cGenius of the United States.\u201d And, of course, monumental eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His earliest public sculptures,\u00a0Comedy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tragedy<\/a>,\u00a0adorned niches on the fa\u00e7ade of Chestnut Street Theatre. \u201cIn the execution of this work, read a notice in the American Daily Advertiser<\/i> on April 2, 1808, \u201cthe genius of the artist is truly pourtrayed. He has done himself honor, and added to that of his country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1812, Rush carved a seven-foot-tall allegory of Wisdom<\/a>. He added Justice<\/a> twelve years later, and the pair topped off the arch spanning Chestnut at Independence Hall for the triumphal return visit of the Marquis de Lafayette<\/a>, the French General essential for Washington\u2019s win in the Revolution. Rush also carved a full-length figure of The Father of his Country.<\/a><\/p>\n

The sculptor\u2019s <\/span>self-portrait<\/a>\u00a0in 1822 has him draped with boughs of pine. Except they are made of terra cotta. It\u2019s on exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1825, Rush again allegorized river water with the <\/span>Schuylkill Chained and Schuylkill Freed<\/a> for the waterworks at Fairmount.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nymph and Bittern statue is often misidentified as the classical figure of <\/span>Leda<\/a> and the Swan. (A little background on that: Zeus admired Leda and transformed himself into a swan and seduced her. That union produced Helen of Troy, Clytaemnestra and the twins Castor and Pollux.) A good story, but that bittern is no Zeus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Caption\"<\/a>
Rush’s Nymph and Bittern, fountain with Pumphouse at Center Square, (detail) ca. 1828 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back on earth in Philadelphia, according to Vanuxem family tradition, \u201cthe lovely and socially prominent Louisa Vanuxem (1782-1874),” modeled for Rush. Her father, the influential merchant James Vanuxem, served as chairman of the Watering Committee when Rush received the commission.<\/p>\n

Thomas Eakins dearly wanted to believe that Louisa Vanuxem posed for Rush in the nude. Repeatedly, he depicted the scene he imagined. Those paintings<\/a> now hang in museums far<\/a> and wide<\/a>. Eakins also produced his own\u00a0sculptural studies<\/a>\u00a0of Miss Vanuxem.<\/p>\n

The popularity of the young, lithe, barely-clad female figure was undisputed, and became legendary. In addition to depictions in prints and paintings<\/a>, the rowdy members of the Fairmount Fire Company<\/a> adopted her image as a logo. They wore it proudly on their ceremonial hats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1872, the City of Philadelphia paid \u00a0Robert Wood & Co<\/a>. $1,200 to cast in bronze Rush\u2019s wood original. That figure was then reinstalled<\/a> in the center of a fountain basin at the Fairmount Water Works. Today it is safely inside at\u00a0the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

By the early 20<\/span>th<\/sup> century, having almost totally disintegrated, the wooden nymph was moved inside at the Water Works. According to <\/span>Linda Bantel<\/a>, \u201cshortly thereafter, John S. Wurts\u2026a great-great nephew of Louisa Vanuxem, salvaged from the fragmentary remains the head and part of the bittern.\u201d That head, illustrated above in a photograph of 1918, was subsequently repainted. Today it is <\/span>on exhibit<\/a> at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This wooden head is all that remains of William Rush’s carved sculpture from 1809. That standing, life-sized \u201cNymph,\u201d Philadelphia’s first free-standing piece of public art, held aloft a marsh bird, a bittern, which spouted a column of Schuylkill water. Originally, the sculpture and its fountain stood in front of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe\u2019s pump house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}