Study of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry Thomas

Study of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry Thomas

John Quincy Adams Ward

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This statuette was cast after a preliminary model for the horse in Ward's bronze equestrian statue of Major General George Henry Thomas (1816–1870), a Union officer during the Civil War. The monument was commissioned in 1874 by the Society of the Army of the Cumberland and unveiled in 1879; it stands in Thomas Circle at the intersections of Massachusetts and Vermont Avenues and 14th and M Streets in Washington, D.C. In Ward’s preliminary concept, illustrated in the Metropolitan’s bronze, the horse is posed so that the forequarters are elevated on the gentle incline of the base. The tail and mane are more windblown in the monumental bronze, but the two versions share the animated posture of the head. This realistic steed revolutionized American equestrian sculpture, turning it away from antique precedents toward more naturalistic, dynamic representations.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry ThomasStudy of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry ThomasStudy of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry ThomasStudy of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry ThomasStudy of the Horse for the Statue of Major General George Henry Thomas

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.