William Rudolf O'Donovan

Background

O'Donovan William Rudolf was born on March 28, 1844, in Preston County, Virginia, son of James Hayes and Mary Bright O'Donovan.

Education

Though little is known about William O'Donovan's education, apparently in art he was self-taught.

Career

In the 1870s, William O'Donovan settled in New York City and established a studio. Soon he became favorably known for his portrait busts and bas-reliefs of eminent citizens. At the National Academy of Design he exhibited in 1874 his bust of Peter Gilsey; in 1876, that of J. A. Kennedy, ordered by the Odd Fellows as a cemetery memorial; in 1877, that of the painter Thomas Le Clear. In 1878 he showed portrait busts of his artist friends William H. Beard, Winslow Homer, and William Page. On the strength of the "Page" he was made an associate member of the Academy; a group of New Yorkers presented the work to that body, which still possesses it.

O'Donovan was an artist who as a painter felt the coloring of his subject, while as a sculptor he sought to express absolute truth of characterization, yet with details so subordinated as to preserve unity. Evidently his ideals in sculptural portraiture were fully abreast of the times, perhaps even in advance of them.

Among his sitters were Walt Whitman, Theodore Tilton, E. C. Stedman, Alexander S. Drake, the painters Arthur Quartley and Thomas Eakins, Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, General James Grant Wilson, and Judge Charles P. Daly. A well-known bronze portrait bust is that of General Joseph Wheeler, an old friend of the sculptor. Made in 1899, it was some years later given by Henry Clews and others to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. His Dr. Talcott Williams was shown at the San Francisco Exhibition in 1915.

O'Donovan's early monumental works include a colossal statue of Father Matthew, the bronze statue of John Paulding, chief captor of André, for the André Capture Monument, Tarrytown, New York (1881), and a soldier's monument for Lawrence, Massachussets.

In collaboration with his friend Thomas Eakins, primarily a painter, but also a sculptor and an expert in the anatomy of the horse, he modeled the two life-size equestrian high reliefs of Lincoln and of Grant, cast in bronze, and placed in 1894 on the piers of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Prospect Park Plaza, Brooklyn, New York. No pains were spared to make these reliefs historically accurate; weeks were spent in trying to find as a model a horse similar to Grant's favorite mount.

A statue of Washington by O'Donovan is in Caracas, Venezuela; another crowns the shaft of the Battle Monument, Trenton, New Jersey (1893); yet another, said to be a copy from Houdon's original, is a feature of the Peace Monument, Newburgh, New York (1882). His statue of Archbishop Hughes is in St. John's College, Fordham, New York. For the Oriskany Battle Monument, Oriskany, New York, he made two anecdotic bas-reliefs. Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, has his memorial tablet to Bayard Taylor.

O'Donovan had a broad interest in art. He often expressed himself by painting landscapes. In 1919 an exhibition of his landscape studies, in tempera, praised for their poetic quality, was held at Cottier's, New York City.

Achievements

• William O'Donovan's most famous work are: a bronze portrait bust of General Joseph Wheeler, a colossal statue of Father Matthew, a bronze statue of John Paulding, bronze reliefs of Lincoln and of Grant, a statue of Archbishop Hughes, bas-relief panels of Herkimer Directing the Oriskany Battle and Combat, Trenton Battle Monument, a bust of Walt Whitman and so on.

Membership

William O'Donovan was among the half-dozen founders of the famous Tile Club (1877); in 1909 he was member of the decorations' committee of the Hudson-Fulton Commission.

Connections

William O'Donovan was married to Mary Corcoran of New York in 1893.

Father:

James Hayes O'Donovan

Mother:

Mary Bright O'Donovan

Wife:

Mary (Corcoran) O'Donovan