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  •  
    		• Elwell, Frank Edwin,
     
  •  
    		• Bureau Brothers,
     
  •  
    		• Portrait male -- Dickens, Charles
     
  •  
    		• Occupation -- Writer
     
  •  
    		• Literature -- Character
     
  •  
    		• Literature -- Dickens
     
  •  
    		• Outdoor Sculpture -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
     
  •  
    		• Sculpture
     
     
    Dickens and Little Nell, (sculpture).
    Artist: 
    Elwell, Frank Edwin, 1858-1922, sculptor.
    Bureau Brothers, founder.
    Title: 
    Dickens and Little Nell, (sculpture).
    Dates: 
    1890. Installed 1901.
    Digital Reference: 
    Image Image
    Medium: 
    Sculpture: bronze; Base: granite.
    Dimensions: 
    Dickens: approx. 6 ft. 8 1/2 in. x 3 ft. 2 in. x 4 ft. x 5 in.; Base: approx. 5 ft. 5 in. x 12 ft. 2 in. x 9 ft. 8 in.; Little Nell: approx. H. 64 in.
    Inscription: 
    Frank Edwin Elwell / BUREAU BROS./BRONZE FOUNDER/PHILA. (Base, front:) DICKENS/AND/LITTLE NELL (Base, round seal on bottom step:) Fairmount Park Art Association/Presented 1901 signed Founder's mark appears.
    Description: 
    Portrait of Charles Dickens seated in a chair with his proper left elbow resting on the left arm of the chair and his proper left hand reaching up to his beard. His proper right arm hangs casually over the right arm of the chair. He has a long beard, moustache, and slightly curly hair, and he is dressed in a long suit jacket, buttoned vest, and ascot. He stares down to his proper right where the bronze figure of Little Nell, a character from his 1841 novel "The Old Curiosity Shop" stands on the corner of the base. The figure of Little Nell is a little girl with long hair and a knee-length dress. She stands with her proper left arm resting on the bronze base of the statue of Dickens and looks up toward the author.
    Subject: 
    Portrait male -- Dickens, Charles -- Full length
    Occupation -- Writer -- Novelist
    Literature -- Character -- Little Nell
    Literature -- Dickens -- Old Curiosity Shop
    Object Type: 
    Outdoor Sculpture -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
    Sculpture
    Owner: 
    Coadministered by City of Philadelphia, Department of Recreation, Municipal Services Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107
    Coadministered by Fairmount Park Art Association, 1616 Walnut Street, Suite 2012, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
    Located Clark Park, 43rd & Chester Avenues, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    Provenance: 
    Acquired 1900.
    Exhibitions: 
    World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
    Remarks: 
    In the 1880s, Silson Hutchins commissioned Elwell to create a statue of Dickens to be placed in London. When Hutchins did not continue to fund the statue, Elwell began to look for other buyers. In the meantime his statue won a gold medal at the Philadelphia Art Club in 1891, and later won two gold medals at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Fairmount Park officials began negotiating for the piece in 1896 and by 1900 the purchase was completed. IAS files contain related articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 17, 1989, pg. 2-B and the University of Pennsylvania's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, April 3, 1993, pg. 2 which both note that this statue of Dickens is the only life-sized statue of Dickens in the world. The Philadelphia Inquirer article includes a photograph of the piece just after it was vandalized in Nov. 1989. The image of the piece on file in the Inventories does not include the figure of Little Nell since it was undergoing restoration following the Nov. 1989 vandalism at the time the photo was taken. The published images, however, do include Little Nell.
    References: 
    Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985
    City of Philadelphia, 1973.
    National Park Service, American Monuments and Outdoor Sculpture Database, PA0119, 1989.
    Monumental News, July and Aug. 1897.
    Fairmount Park Art Assoc., "Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze & Stone," NY: Walker Publ., 1974, pg. 152.
    Bach, Penny Balkin, "Public Art in Philadelphia," Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992, pg. 206.
    Save Outdoor Sculpture, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia survey, 1993.
    Illustration: 
    Image on file.
    Monumental News, Aug. 1897, pg. 470.
    Fairmount Park Art Assoc., "Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze & Stone," NY: Walker Publ., 1974, pg. 152.
    Note: 
    The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
    Repository: 
    Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
    Control Number: 
    IAS 75009307
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    Inventory of American Sculpture75009307Add Copy to MyList

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