John Rogers

Background

John Rogers was born in Salem, Massachusetts on October 30, 1829 to an unsuccessful but well-connected Boston merchant.

Education

He attended Boston English High School . He gave early evidence of artistic interests and even as a young child, showed a taste and talent for drawing. However, it was the feeling of his parents that an artist’s life was little better than a vagabond, and in 1845, at the age of sixteen, after what was considered a good education in the town schools, he was placed in a dry-goods store in Boston, with the intention of learning the business.

Career

However, John Rogers felt certain he was not suited for this line of work, and in 1848 he began his career as a machinist and draftsman at the Amoskeag Locomotive Works in Manchester, New Hampshire, to learn the trade. During this period, John Rogers devoted himself to his art with enthusiasm and his attention was drawn to sculpture, in particular. John Rogers began to model in clay in his leisure hours. Nevertheless, in 1856 Rogers sought work in Hannibal, Missouri as a mechanic with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. In 1858 he left that position to visit Europe to continue his formal education in sculpting. On his return in 1859 he went to Chicago, where he modeled, for a charity event, "The Checker Players, " a group in clay, which attracted much attention. This event marked the beginning of an unusual career.

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Encyclopedia of World Biography

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

John Rogers

Encyclopedia of World Biography

COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

John Rogers

John Rogers (1829-1904) was the most successful genre sculptor of mid-19th century America. His plaster groups sold by the thousands.

John Rogers was born in Salem, Mass. , and spent his early life as a clerk in New England, New York, and the Midwest. He began to model sculpture before the middle of the century. In 1858 he went first to Paris and then to Rome for training. The ideals of contemporary neoclassicism, as practiced by both American and European sculptors in Italy, did not inspire him, however, and he turned his back upon his sculptural pursuits when he returned to Chicago.

However, Rogers was persuaded to continue modeling small genre figures of a type he had done previously. Their success led him to open a studio in New York City in 1859. A combination of his sculptural ability and shrewd marketing practices quickly made that venture a success too. His work consisted of small, very detailed sculptures in plaster, built around a metal armature, and painted a neutral earth color. His grasp of anatomy and sharp observation of details of costumes and accessories were combined with an ability at compositional massing of figures and an appealing, sympathetic expressiveness. Some of his earliest works related to the Civil War, appealing to patriotism and to the popular sentiment against deprivation, the horrors of war, and slavery.

The majority of Rogers's sculptures featured scenes of everyday life—in the schoolhouse, at the parsonage, in the home, more often rural or small town. Among his more ambitious works were scenes taken from literature, including three sculptures from Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, some from Goethe's Faust, and a number of Shakespearean interpretations; even these stressed anecdotal rather than dramatic qualities. There were a few small portrait sculptures, too, of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Henry Ward Beecher. As time went on, Rogers's compositions tended toward greater looseness, and he also depicted more scenes of action. In all, there were about 80 so-called Rogers Groups, of which about 80, 000 plaster reproductions were made. Rogers developed a mail-order business, and his works were often purchased as wedding presents. They cost about $10 or $15 each.

Rogers also executed a number of monumental sculptures, but these are far less significant than his plaster groups. They represent one phase of the reaction to the popular idealistic marbles, although in the 1850s some neoclassic sculptors were also producing genre works. Rogers had numerous imitators, but none achieved his renown.

Rogers died at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1904.

Achievements

• He became famous for his small genre sculptures, popularly termed "Rogers Groups", which were mass-produced in cast plaster. A total of 80, 000 copies of almost 80 Rogers Groups were sold across the United States and abroad.