When the U.S. Capitol was burned on 24 August 1814 and its principal chambers gutted, Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s neoclassical masterpiece, the Hall of Representatives, became a smoldering ruin and a tenuous gesture of the young republic’s idealism and promise (Chenoweth, 2011). Also lost on that day was the nation’s first monumental Statue of Liberty. It is not well known because it was never recorded topographically; all that remains are descriptive fragments regarding its design development. The neoclassical sitting figure of Liberty was modeled and carved in plaster, and presided over the chamber from 1807-1814. Even if the Liberty had been carved in Vermont marble, as was the intention, it would not have survived the fire. In a post fire report, Latrobe wrote that the marble columns of the Senate chamber were reduced to lime, so surely the Liberty also would have been. This paper will describe as many known facts about the first Statue of Liberty as can be ascertained. On an objective level, letters provide dimensions and parameters of the figure and its accoutrements. On a subjective level, Latrobe’s musings in letters inform us of his favorite sculptors, his proclivities in art, and his emotional response to stylistic ideas and elements. And when Latrobe puts pencil to paper, his ideas are very clear, therefore the one drawing depicting Liberty, although of small scale, is very informative.
Auteur: Richard Chenoweth