John Neal Tilton
Emma Stebbins modeled and carved this portrait bust of her nephew John Neal Tilton (1860-1921) when both sculptor and subject were based in Rome, Italy, in the mid-1860s. Tilton’s cherubic features are also featured in Samuel (ca. 1865-66), a full-length representation of the Old Testament prophet as a youth, and in the four subsidiary figures representing temperance, purity, health, and peace for her best-known work, Angel of the Waters for the Bethesda Fountain, unveiled in Central Park in 1873, the first New York City public art commission awarded to a woman. During the 1850s and 1860s, Stebbins and her life partner, the actor Charlotte Cushman, were central figures in Rome’s expatriate cultural community. She created small-scale marbles for domestic decoration, including this appealing representation of youthful innocence, as well as public sculptures for New York and Boston.
Artwork Details
- Title: John Neal Tilton
- Artist: Emma Stebbins (American, 1815–1882)
- Date: ca. 1865
- Culture: American
- Medium: Marble
- Dimensions: 17 5/8 × 10 1/4 × 7 3/4 in. (44.8 × 26 × 19.7 cm)
- Credit Line: Gift of Elizabeth Milroy, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.203a–c
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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