Artwork Details
- Title
- Major General John Fulton Reynolds
- Artist
- John Rogers (1829 – 1904)
- Year
- 1883; installed 1884
- Medium
- Bronze, on granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 12′, width 5', depth 10' (base height 10′, 6', depth 11'
Artwork Description
Over eighteen years after Major General John Fulton Reynolds was killed by a sharpshooter’s bullet in Gettysburg in 1863, Joseph Temple of Philadelphia offered $25,000 toward a sculpture to commemorate the fallen Pennsylvanian and the state’s participation in the Civil War.
The artist chosen was John Rogers, who was known for his parlor sculptures, popularly known as “convention groupings.” Rogers had never produced a sculpture of this scale before, and initially hesitated. He ultimately took on the project, and began studying the anatomy of horses and collecting information about the general. He aimed to “represent General Reynolds in front of the battlefield as he was on the first day of Gettysburg. The horse is startled and shying away from the noise and danger in the direction he is looking, while the General is pointing to the same spot and giving the direction to his aides at his side.”
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by the Reynolds Monument Association and Grand Army of the Republic
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
GREGORY URWIN is a professor of history at Temple University. He has a longstanding interest in military history, especially the Civil War.
LYNN D. MARSDEN-ATLASS is the former director of the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a specialist in American and contemporary art.
Segment Producer: John Myers