Title: Autograph Letter, signed, from the wife of famed American sculptor Horatio Greenough Author: Greenough, Louise I. Place: Florence, Italy Publisher: Date: May 8, 1850 Description: Autograph Letter, signed. 2 pages. To Mrs. Henrietta W. Brand. “…this little copy of a Raffaello… a very slight token of my gratitude for your kindness in resigning to me my dear mother’s Portrait. The picture I send you…is a very faithful copy of its great original the ‘Madonna Del Gran Duca’ – so called from its always remaining in the Grand Duke’s private apartments. It is considered rather a favor to be allowed to copy it and therefore is not so universally seen with us as the ‘Madonna Della Seggiola’…I hoped to have had the pleasure of presenting this little souvenir in person, but… my return to America is now indefinitely postponed…”. Louisa Ingersoll Gore Greenough (1812-1892) is barely remembered as wife of America’s first internationally-famed sculptor, Horatio Greenough whose statues of Washington and other founding fathers still stand in the US Capitol. The grand-niece of a former Governor of Massachusetts, she accompanied her wealthy young husband when he expatriated to Italy, where he remained for 20 years, until he returned in 1852 to suffer a nervous breakdown and die in a Mental Hospital. She then lived in Cambridge for a time, her home becoming a salon “for the great intellectuals of New England”, including her close friend, the poet Longfellow. But she again sailed for Europe before the Civil War and died in Paris in 1891. This letter is a rare reference to her own artistic interests. Lot Amendments Condition: Attached stub from prior album mounting, identification notes at head of first page in a different hand; near fine. Item number: 226432
Title: Autograph Letter, signed, from the wife of famed American sculptor Horatio Greenough Author: Greenough, Louise I. Place: Florence, Italy Publisher: Date: May 8, 1850 Description: Autograph Letter, signed. 2 pages. To Mrs. Henrietta W. Brand. “…this little copy of a Raffaello… a very slight token of my gratitude for your kindness in resigning to me my dear mother’s Portrait. The picture I send you…is a very faithful copy of its great original the ‘Madonna Del Gran Duca’ – so called from its always remaining in the Grand Duke’s private apartments. It is considered rather a favor to be allowed to copy it and therefore is not so universally seen with us as the ‘Madonna Della Seggiola’…I hoped to have had the pleasure of presenting this little souvenir in person, but… my return to America is now indefinitely postponed…”. Louisa Ingersoll Gore Greenough (1812-1892) is barely remembered as wife of America’s first internationally-famed sculptor, Horatio Greenough whose statues of Washington and other founding fathers still stand in the US Capitol. The grand-niece of a former Governor of Massachusetts, she accompanied her wealthy young husband when he expatriated to Italy, where he remained for 20 years, until he returned in 1852 to suffer a nervous breakdown and die in a Mental Hospital. She then lived in Cambridge for a time, her home becoming a salon “for the great intellectuals of New England”, including her close friend, the poet Longfellow. But she again sailed for Europe before the Civil War and died in Paris in 1891. This letter is a rare reference to her own artistic interests. Lot Amendments Condition: Attached stub from prior album mounting, identification notes at head of first page in a different hand; near fine. Item number: 226432
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
