Texas Icons - Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin
A Commission of State Importance
In 1892, a group of women approached Elisabet Ney with hopes that she could lend her talent and help to represent the state of Texas at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
The Exposition, which boasted over 27 million visitors during the six months it remained open, consisted of large exhibition halls designed to showcase American arts and industry. Additionally, each state was allotted space to build its own pavilion. Fundraising for a Texas pavilion was initially slow, and it would ultimately be the women of the state who successfullyacquired the funds to construct a Texas building.
With little money left to commission artwork to display, the committee members turned to Elisabet Ney, who offered to provide two full-length statues for the pavilion, charging only for her expenses.
The portraits were to feature Stephen F. Austin, known as “the Father of Texas” for his role in settling the territory, and Sam Houston, who fought in the Texas Revolution and went on to serve as a president of the Republic of Texas and, later, a governor of the state. Ney immediately set to work planning the construction of her studio, collecting images of Houston and Austin, and gathering materials to execute her first commissions in Texas.
Because both Houston and Austin had passed away, Ney was unable to sculpt from life as she usually preferred, instead relying on images, descriptions from relatives, and, in Austin’s case, an old family engraving. Instead of representing the two men as the elder statesmen that many Texans remembered, Ney chose to depict Houston and Austin as young frontiersmen. This artistic choice drew attention to the unique roles that each Texan played in shaping the state’s history; Houston carries a sword while Austin is pictured with a map and a rifle. Ney also used authentic artifacts, including Houston’s original sword and Austin’s Kentucky rifle, in molding the two pieces, and both statues exhibit an incredible likeness to their subject.
While ultimately, only Houston’s statue was completed in time for the World’s Columbian Exposition, marble versions of both Houston and Austin were later completed and now remain in the Texas Capital and the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
Other Sculptures of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston in the Collections
