Description:
Framed print of "Liberty" by Edward Savage (1761-1817), which was formerly in the collection of Katherine Lane Weems, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. At the bottom of the print is the inscription: "LIBERTY. / In the form of the Goddess of Youth: giving Support to the Bald Eagle" and "Painted and Engraved by E. Savage / Philadelphia. Pubd June 11, 1796 by E. Savage." Savage began his career as a goldsmith in Princeton, Massachusetts, but by 1785, he was already a competent painter, producing expert copies of Copley paintings. He went to London in 1791, presumably to study under Benjamin West, and where he also learned to engrave in stipple and mezzotint. Savage returned to Boston in 1794, married, and moved to Philadelphia in 1795. Savage wanted to paint a classical allegory for the new republican nation. He had probably seen "Hebe, Goddess of Youth," a circa 1791 watercolor by William Hamilton (1751-1801), a member of the Royal Academy, during his three years in London, since Savage chose a similar, simple composition for his first undertaking of this kind: a standing figure of a young woman draped with a garland of flowers and holding a cup from which an eagle will drink. Neither of the pictorial symbols needed much explanation: the female in classical gown has long been recognized as Liberty, and her youth merely implied the young country for which the bald eagle had become its animal emblem. Savage's lifesize canvas was exhibited at the 1802 Columbian Gallery on South Greenwich Street in New York City. The artist's description in the exhibition catalogue clarifies some of the detail: "...in the Back-ground is a monument supporting a Flag-staff on which is suspended the Cap of Liberty and the union of the United States; in the offscape appears a view of Boston harbor representing the Evacuation of the British fleet; the Goddess of Liberty is supposed to be on Beacon-hill, where she tramples under foot the Key of Bastille, as the Key of Tyranny Connected with the different orders of Hereditary Nobility." The last phrase refers to the star of the Order of the Garter which the goddess tramples along with the key of the Bastille, and to a ribbon inscribed with letters, probably "Honi soit qui mal y pense," stipple engraving.
Tags:
allegory Link to share this object record:
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