The Ricau Collection of American Sculpture

Chrysler Museum of Art

Norfolk, Virginia

(757) 664-6200

The Ricau Collection of American Sculpture

Larkin Meade, Returned Soldier, 1865, 55 3/4 x 31 7/8 x 42 1/2 inches

Acquired by the Chrysler in 1986, The James H. Ricau Collection represents one of the finest concentrations of 19th-century American marble sculpture in the United States. Comprising seventy works by twenty-six artists, the collection had been on view at the Museum since 1989, though the small, cramped gallery in which it was housed hardly displayed it to best effect. Thanks to the generous support of NationsBank, all of this has changed.

Chauncey B. Ives, Undine Receiving Her Soul, c.1883, 50 5/8 x 12 2/3 inches

On February 6, 1998, the Museum will proudly unveil The Ricau Gallery of American Sculpture. Underwritten by NationsBank, this spacious, new skylit gallery -- the crown of the recently refurbished East Wing -- at last allows the Museum to permantly exhibit the sculptural masterpieces of Thomas Crawford, Hiram Powers, Chauncey B. Ives and others, and these in a beautiful setting that fully reveals their significance.

Remarkable in its breadth and consistently high level of quality, The Ricau Collection splendidly reveals a unique chapter in the history of American art, when our sculptors, working abroad, gave the nation its very first sculptural style. With the support of NationsBank, that collection can now be fully enjoyed in a breathtaking new gallery.

Text and images courtesy of The Chrysler Museum of Art. Photos by Scott Wolff, Museum Photographer.

For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 11/26/10

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