Singing Boys

Carver Carved by Piccirilli Brothers Marble Carving Studio

1894

Not on view

Adams’s engaging relief of Evan, Arnold, and William Fraser-Campbell depicts the brothers gathered around a music scroll. The marble bears stylistic and compositional indebtedness to bas-reliefs by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who also had a summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire. “Singing Boys,” one of Adams’s earliest forays into relief sculpture, was modeled in Cornish in summer 1894 and follows Saint-Gaudens’s lead through a skillful combination of high and low relief and the use of decorative inscriptions. The natural forms that occupy the background are rendered so as to form a curtain, while the inscriptions with the heraldic device at the lower left are the mottoes of the Fraser and Campbell families. Although the circumstances of the portrait’s commission are unclear, it was likely ordered by Charles W. Gould, a friend of the Fraser-Campbell family and later a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum (1915-30).

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Singing Boys
Artist: Herbert Adams (American, West Concord, Vermont 1858–1945 New York)
Carver: Carved by Piccirilli Brothers Marble Carving Studio (active 1893–1946)
Date: 1894
Culture: American
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 36 1/4 x 44 1/2 in. (92.1 x 113 cm)
Credit Line: Bequest of Charles W. Gould, 1931
Object Number: 32.62.2
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

By Herbert Adams

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Louise Adele Dickerson Gould, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Marble, American — Louise Adele Dickerson Gould
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Carver Carved by Piccirilli Brothers Marble Carving Studio
1904

La Jeunesse, Herbert Adams American, Applewood, marble, paste jewels, and twisted wire, American — La Jeunesse
Herbert Adams
ca. 1894; carved ca. 1899–1900

Powder Horn, Horn (cow), lead, American — Powder Horn
American
18th century

The Farnese Table, Jacopo [Giacomo] Barozzi da Vignola Italian, Marble of different colors, semiprecious stones, Egyptian alabaster, residue of paint of different colors on the piers, Italian, Rome — The Farnese Table
Designer Designed by Jacopo [Giacomo] Barozzi da Vignola
Marble piers carved by Guglielmo della Porta
Pietre Dure top attributed to Giovanni Mynardo (Jean Ménard)
ca. 1565–73

Dedicated to All True Fishermen, Herbert Adams American, Bronze, American — Dedicated to All True Fishermen
Herbert Adams
1934

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.