Dickens and Little Nell (Elwell)
| Dickens and Little Nell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Artist | Francis Edwin Elwell |
| Year | 1890 |
| Type | Bronze |
| Location | Philadelphia, United States |
| 39°56′55″N 75°12′34″W / 39.94860°N 75.20944°WCoordinates: 39°56′55″N 75°12′34″W / 39.94860°N 75.20944°W | |
| Owner | |
Dickens and Little Nell is a bronze sculpture by Francis Edwin Elwell that stands in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. The sculpture depicts the 19th-century British author Charles Dickens and Nell Trent, a character from his 1840-41 novel The Old Curiosity Shop. The grouping was one of the most celebrated American sculptural works of the late 19th century.
It is one of just two known statues of Dickens, who said he wanted no such representations.
The sculpture was commissioned in 1890 by Washington Post founder Stilson Hutchins, who wanted it placed in London but subsequently backed out of the deal. Elwell, a sculptor based in New York City, completed the work anyway and had it cast by the Bureau Brothers Foundry in Philadelphia, where it won a gold medal from the Art Club of Philadelphia in 1891. The next year, he shipped it to London and put it on display in hopes of finding a buyer, but was unsuccessful, largely because Dickens’ will forbade any "monument, memorial or testimonial, whatever. I rest my claims to remembrance on my published works and to the remembrance of my friends upon their experiences of me."
So Elwell shipped the work back across the Atlantic, and on to Chicago, where it won two gold medals at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892-93. The New York Times wrote, "Among the art exhibits of this country at the World's Fair, probably no particular example has attracted more popular interest than the sculptural memorial to Charles Dickens, the work of Mr. F. Edwin Elwell, a young artist". But the work failed to find a buyer immediately, and Elwell had it sent back halfway across the country to a Philadelphia warehouse.
...
Wikipedia