Erastus Dow Palmer (April 2, 1817March 9, 1904) was an American sculptor.

Life

Palmer was born in Pompey, New York. He was the second of nine children. He showed early artistic promise, and pursued his father's trade of carpentry. Palmer married Matilda Alton in 1839 and had a son, but both mother and child died soon after; he remarried, to Mary Jean Seamans, in 1840, and settled in

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot ...

. In his leisure moments as a carpenter Palmer started by carving portraits in cameo, and earned the encouragement of Thomas R. Walker, a local art patron in Utica, who introduced him to prominent artists in New York City. By 1849, Palmer had relocated to Albany with his family and had transitioned from cameo-cutting to large-scale sculpture. He worked in a primarily neoclassical style. Palmer mounted an exhibition of twelve of his sculptures, known as "the Palmer Marbles," at the National Academy of Design in 1856, aiding his rise to prominence. His major works include ''The White Captive'' (1858) in the permanent collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

, New York, ''Peace in Bondage'' (1863), ''Angel at the Sepulchre'' (1865), in Albany, New York, a bronze statue of ''Chancellor Robert R. Livingston'' (1874), in

Statuary Hall The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along th ...

, Capitol, Washington, D.C., and many portrait busts. Palmer died at his home in Albany on March 9, 1904, and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery. Palmer admired the work of William Cullen Bryant, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church. Palmer was a friend of Church, and his work is represented in the collection at Olana, Church's home in

Hudson, New York Hudson is a city and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. Located on the east side of the Hudson River and 120 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, it was named for the river ...

. The Albany Institute of History & Art also has significant holdings of Palmer's sculpture. Palmer's son, Walter Launt Palmer (1854–1932), was also an artist best known for his paintings of winter scenes. Erastus Palmer - Captive blanche

Notes

Sources

External links

Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Palmer (see index)
Marble Statue Female Nude and others

Painting by Walter Launt Palmer

Overview of an archival collection on Erastus Dow Palmer. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Erastus Dow 1817 births 1904 deaths American male sculptors 19th-century American sculptors 19th-century American male artists Burials at Albany Rural Cemetery Artists from Albany, New York