William Henry Rinehart was a noted American sculptor. He is considered "the last important American sculptor to work in the classical style."
Biography
The son of Israel Rinehart and Mary Rinehart, William Henry Rinehart was born near Union Bridge, Maryland, where he attended school until he was nearly eighteen. He then began to work on his father's farm, but also became the assistant of a stone-cutter in the neighborhood. In 1844 he began an apprenticeship in the stone-yard of Baughman and Bevan on the site of what is now The Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and studied sculpture at what is now called the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 1855 Rinehart went to Italy to continue his studies. While there he executed two bas-reliefs in marble, Morning and Evening. On his return, two years later, he opened a studio in Baltimore, where he executed numerous busts, a fountain-figure for the main U.S. Post Office in Washington, DC; and two bronze figures, Backwoodsman and Indian, flanking the clock in the House of Representatives Chamber of the U.S. Capitol. In 1858 he settled in Rome where he would live the rest of his life, except for trips back to the United States in 1866 and 1872. Rinehart is buried in Baltimore's renowned Green Mount Cemetery.
Legacy
Rinehart was financially successful in his lifetime, executing many commissions for wealthy and cultured clients. American patrons often traveled to Italy to meet Rinehart and plan projects for their estates back in America. Rinehart's most important patron and sponsor was William T. Walters, founder of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery. William Henry Rinehart left his estate in trust for the teaching of sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In his name, MICA established the Rinehart School of Sculpture and a Rinehart fellowship. The Rinehart School's alumni would include the estimable Hans Schuler, born the year Rinehart died. According to artcyclopedia.com and askart.com, Rinehart's sculptures, neoclassicalin style and mostly of human figures, are in public collections such as those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art,, the Walters Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum, and Ohio's Columbus Museum of Art, among others.
Bust of Mrs. William T. Walters, marble, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
Hero, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. At least 9 marble replicas.
Antigone Pouring a Libation over the Corpse of Her Brother Polynices, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Marble replica at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Endymion, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Marble replica at Corcoran Gallery of Art. Bronze replica at Rinehart's grave in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.
Clytie, marble, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland. Marble replica at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Latona and Her Children – Apollo and Diana, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Marble replica at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
