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Rebecca at the Well

1854; carved 1866
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 737
Ives, a Connecticut native, modeled "Rebecca at the Well" in his Rome studio in 1854. Like other American expatriate sculptors who worked in a neoclassical style, he derived many subjects from the Bible, especially the Old Testament. In Genesis 24:11–23, Rebecca was chosen to be the bride of Isaac, the son of Abraham, after offering him water she had drawn from a well.　In Ives’s youthful figure of Rebecca, he was capitalizing on the renown he had achieved with sentimental images of children. The sculpture would prove to be his most successful work with twenty-five marble replicas sold over a period of forty years. Studio records indicate that half were sold to New York-area clientele, who constituted a ready patronage base, both through their Grand Tour travels to Italy and Ives’s savvy exhibiting and marketing of his work in the United States.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Rebecca at the Well
  • Artist: Chauncey Bradley Ives (1810–1894)
  • Date: 1854; carved 1866
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Marble
  • Dimensions: 50 x 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (127 x 41.9 x 41.9 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Anna C. McCreery, 1899
  • Object Number: 99.8
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Isaac Newton Phelps, Chauncey Bradley Ives American, Marble, American
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Powder Horn, Horn (cow), lead, American
Powder Horn
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Marsyas, Balthasar Permoser German, Marble on a black marble socle inlaid with light marble panels, German, executed Rome or Florence
Marsyas
Balthasar Permoser
ca. 1680–85
Easel and Portfolio Stand, Walnut, ebonized wood, marquetry of lighter woods, brass, American
Easel and Portfolio Stand
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ca. 1880
Winged Cupid (from Cropsey Album), Chauncey Bradley Ives American, Graphite and gray wash on off-white wove paper, American
Winged Cupid (from Cropsey Album)
Chauncey Bradley Ives

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