Detail of The Lost Pleiad by Randolph Rogers in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, August 2009

The Lost Pleiad

Randolph Rogers, American, 1825 - 1892

Date: c. 1874-1882

Medium: Marble

Dimensions: Swivel: 21 1/8 x 21 1/8 x 1 inches (53.7 x 53.7 x 2.5 cm) Base: 41 1/2 x 29 15/16 inches (105.4 x 76 cm) Height: 68 1/2 inches (174 cm)

Curatorial Department: American Art

Accession Number: 1929-162-1

Credit Line: Gift of Lydia Thompson Morris, 1929

Label:
The Lost Pleiad personifies one of seven sister stars described by the Roman poet Ovid in his poem Fasti. Her brightness dimmed by the shame of marrying a mortal, the Pleiad anxiously searches through the night sky to be reunited with her sisters. Regarded as Randolph Rogers’s last great work, The Lost Pleiad exemplifies his flair for dynamic compositions and successfully evokes weightless flight in a freestanding sculpture. Its dramatic form and quasi-erotic, sentimental subject made it an extremely popular work; Rogers received over one hundred requests for replicas following its completion in 1875. Ultimately, it was replicated in two sizes, the Museum’s example being the larger version.

Text from: www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/42421.html?mulR=658789697|22