Maquette (Sojourner Truth Monument)

Description

Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797–1883) escaped slavery in 1826 to become a prominent African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Chase-Riboud inserts Truth into an equestrian monument tradition usually reserved for white male statesmen. Rather than depict her riding the horse, however, the artist shows her leading it while holding a lantern aloft. Truth appears less to command than to seek, even as she brings light into a dark world. The artist submitted this maquette to a memorial statue competition in Truth’s hometown of Florence in Northampton, Massachusetts.


Object Information

Date Created:

1999

Local ID:

2007.13

Collection:

N-YHS Museum, Sculpture

Credit Line:

Courtesy of the Artist

Dimensions:

20 x 24 x 14 in. (50.8 x 61 x 35.6 cm)

Creator(s):

Barbara Chase-Riboud

Materials:

Bronze

Rights:

This digital image may be used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the New-York Historical Society. For more information, please visit the New-York Historical Society's Rights and Reproductions Department web page at http://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions