Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1100404
THE CAPITOL DOME 37 tor. Andrew O'Connor's (1874–1941) marble statue of General Lewis Wallace (fig. 9) joined the collection in Statuary Hall in 1910 to represent Indiana. Wallace, a distinguished Union general in the Civil War, is perhaps even better known as the author of the hugely successful book Ben Hur (1880). e statue is replicated in bronze in Wallace's hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana. at O'Connor's representation of Wallace shows some sim- ilarity with the work of Saint-Gaudens, particularly the latter's Farragut statue in Madison Square Park, New York, is not surprising. In his early career O'Connor studied with the older sculptor, and the Wallace portrait has a similar aliveness and vigor to that encountered in Saint-Gaudens's depiction of the naval hero; it makes use of the same wind-blown movement in the coat. O'Connor is unique amidst this group of Irish-American sculptors who carried out work for the Capitol, in that he is alone among them to have spent part of his active career in Ireland. Born in the U.S., O'Connor was particularly proud of his Irish ances- try. His grandfather was born in Ireland and his Scot- tish-born father, from whom he learned his trade, was raised there. Based in Paris at the time of the Wallace commission, O'Connor subsequently moved to live and work in Dublin, and it was there that he died. e Wallace commission was concurrent with O'Connor becoming embroiled in the controversy over the statue of the Revolutionary War hero Commodore John Barry for Washington, D.C. While O'Connor was the sculptor favored for that commission, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians objected to his design, and ultimately, their position determined the commission going to John J. Boyle. It is perhaps surprising that there are not more portrait statues in the Statuary Hall from the hands of these sculptors. However, they are particularly well represented in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress (LOC), in the form of ideal and classical work. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, along with J.Q.A. Ward and Olin L. Warner, was selected to over- see the vast sculptural program of the LOC. ese three sculptors were in charge of selecting fellow practitioners to carry out the work, as well as having responsibility for the approval of their designs, while it was archi- tect Edward Casey's role to ensure that there was some consistency across the disparate works from so many different hands. 44 Four Irish-Americans were among the nearly 20 sculptors who were commissioned, and their work can be seen among the historical (bronze) and allegorical (plaster) statuary figures positioned respectively at a considerable height on the balustrade of the gallery and in the spandrels of the arches in the Rotunda Reading Room. John J. Boyle (1852?–1917), Fig. 9. Lewis Wallace, by Andrew O'Connor (1874– 1941), given by Indiana in 1910