Wordless Wednesday: Adams Memorial

Wednesday, September 4, 2013



Adams Memorial 

"Clover Adams, wife of writer Henry Adams, commited suicide in 1885 by 
drinking chemicals used to develop photographs. Adams commissioned 
sculpture Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a memorial that would 
express the Buddhist ideas of nirvana, a state of being beyond joy and sorrow." 

This sculpture is the result. It's a reproduction in the Smithsonian 
American Art Museum. The original is by Clover's gravesite in D.C.

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

7 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

Not that memorials are really happy things, but this one is so sad but beautiful nevertheless.

Anonymous said...

Oh my. I like Sandy's comment.

Beth F said...

Yep. Sandy said it for me.

Andi said...

Beautiful memorial but WHAT a way to commit suicide. Oh my.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Sandy - I know. It was really powerful in person. Heartbreaking.

Andi - Isn't that awful! What a horrible thing to do.

CommonWeeder said...

Saint Gaudens' genius was in being able to capture this sorrow.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

CommonWeeder - I felt the same way. It's hard to convey emotion, but I feel like he nailed it.